Chapter 4
Brian claimed Dominic was lying.
Melissa claimed Walter was confused.
Neither explained the river house.
Valentina asked once more.
“Who chose the location?”
No answer.
She smiled slightly.
“Good.”
Brian frowned.
“What’s good?”
“You’re finally afraid of the same question.”
Melissa scoffed.
“You think silence means fear?”
“No.”
Valentina looked at her.
“Your face does.”
Melissa’s smile vanished.
Dominic sat beside Walter.
The two old men exchanged the kind of look that carries decades.
Valentina noticed.
“What?”
Walter said:
“The river house was where my father settled disputes.”
Dominic added:
“Only senior men knew.”
“How many are alive?”
“Five.”
Walter counted.
“Dominic.”
“Samuel Price.”
“Raymond Bell.”
“Victor Hale.”
“And me.”
Valentina looked at Brian.
“Which one are you working with?”
Brian laughed.
“None.”
Walter’s voice cut through.
“Victor.”
Silence.
Brian looked at him.
Too quickly.
There.
Valentina saw it.
Walter continued.
“Victor visited you last month.”
Brian shrugged.
“He’s an old family friend.”
“No.”
Walter’s eyes hardened.
“He hates Valentina.”
Brian’s jaw tightened.
Melissa interrupted.
“Everyone hates someone.”
Dominic looked at her.
Melissa smiled.
“What?”
Then she added:
“Some of us simply have the manners not to say it at dinner.”
Walter stared at her.
Melissa turned toward him.
“Unlike you.”
Her tone sharpened.
“You complain about everything.”
“Food.”
“Noise.”
“The temperature.”
Then crueler:
“Maybe if you were easier to live with, Brian wouldn’t have to discipline you.”
Dominic’s face darkened.
Valentina looked at Melissa.
“Discipline?”
Melissa shrugged.
“If an adult behaves like a child, treat him like one.”
Walter’s face tightened.
Melissa saw.
Enjoyed it.
“No dinner.”
“No phone.”
“No privileges.”
She smiled.
“It worked.”
Valentina became very still.
Melissa continued.
“He stopped arguing.”
Walter whispered:
“I stopped because I was tired.”
Melissa rolled her eyes.
“There.”
She looked at Valentina.
“Always the victim.”
Brian laughed.
Valentina turned toward her father.
“Why did Victor visit?”
Walter answered.
“To ask whether I trusted Brian.”
“And?”
“I told him no.”
Brian’s face hardened.
Walter continued.
“Victor said blood should stay with sons.”
Valentina almost smiled.
“And daughters?”
Walter looked at her.
“He said daughters marry out.”
Melissa nodded faintly.
Too faintly.
Valentina saw.
“You agree.”
Melissa shrugged.
“It’s traditional.”
Dominic laughed.
“Cole family tradition, maybe.”
Melissa looked at him.
“You old men love pretending women run anything because Eleanor and Valentina scare you.”
She caught herself.
Eleanor?
Wrong family.
Wrong name.
Valentina’s eyes narrowed.
Melissa froze.
Brian turned.
“What did you say?”
She immediately corrected:
“Nothing.”
But Valentina remembered.
Eleanor Bellini.
A powerful Mafia boss from another Queens family.
Why had Melissa been discussing her?
Dominic looked uneasy.
Walter noticed too.
Valentina asked:
“Who taught you that line?”
Melissa said nothing.
Then Dominic’s phone buzzed.
A second message.
From Walter’s number.
DINNER MOVED FORWARD. TEN O’CLOCK.
Walter’s phone was lying on the table.
Nobody had touched it.
Valentina looked at the screen.
Then at Brian.
May you like
Someone else had access to Walter’s identity.
And they were moving the timetable without Brian’s permission.
