Chapter 7
The fake ashes came from Victor’s own family chapel.
That was the next truth.
He admitted it because Isabella already knew.
After the fire, a body was recovered.
Female.
Similar height.
Burned badly.
Victor used it.
I almost hit him then.
Not because of the deception alone.
Because someone else’s death had been reduced to a prop.
“Who was she?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“I don’t know.”
“Lie.”
“I truly don’t.”
Isabella spoke.
“He never checked.”
I looked at my brother.
That was worse.
Victor had needed a body.
Not a name.
I stood.
He remained seated.
“If I discover you knew who she was—”
“You won’t.”
His tone was too calm.
I stepped closer.
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because the people who started that fire removed everything that connected her to them.”
There.
Back to the second faction.
I sat again.
“Who were they?”
Victor finally gave me one name.
Adrian Vale.
A senior Ravello captain at the time.
Dead now.
Officially from a boating accident eighteen months earlier.
I remembered attending the funeral.
Victor stood beside me then too.
Another death.
Another closed story.
Isabella continued.
“Adrian was recruiting.”
“For what?”
“To remove both of you.”
Silence.
Victor looked irritated.
“He thought Ravello had become too dependent on blood.”
I almost smiled.
Old argument.
Different generation.
“He wanted a council.”
“Without you,” Isabella said.
“And without Victor.”
That explained why Victor kept the secret.
If he exposed Adrian too early, his own hidden crews would be exposed with him.
So he protected himself.
At my wife’s expense.
At my daughter’s expense.
At mine.
May you like
Victor had not been choosing between loyalty and betrayal.
He had been choosing which betrayal preserved him best.
