Chapter 10
Victoria finally understood Rafael had abandoned her when no message came.
For nine months she had followed his instructions. Controlled the corridor. Managed Mercer. Punished Sofia for lingering near the gray door. Sat beside me at dinner while Isabel listened from the other side of my house.
Now Rafael invited Isabel to the winter estate and ignored Victoria completely.
“You want me to help you?” she asked bitterly.
“No.”
That answer enraged her.
“Then why are you here?”
“To see what you say when nobody is promising you a wedding.”
Her face twisted.
For several seconds she refused.
Then humiliation did what fear could not.
“Rafael hates you.”
I shrugged.
“No.”
She stared.
“He hates that you don’t need him.”
Better.
That sounded true.
She continued. Rafael spent years telling anyone who listened that my father weakened the organization by preparing his own son instead of balancing power between brothers. Rafael believed every boss should remain dependent on an older hand.
When I removed him, he did not see exile.
He saw theft.
“So he built another way back.”
“Yes.”
“Through you.”
Victoria laughed bitterly. “Through whoever worked.”
I nodded.
Finally she understood what she had been.
Not chosen.
Useful.
“What was supposed to happen to Isabel after the markers were recovered?”
Victoria looked away.
“Rafael said she would be moved.”
“Alive?”
No answer.
I stared until she filled the silence.
“I never agreed to kill her.”
“You agreed to walk past her door while her children lived twenty feet away.”
“She ruined my life.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You built your life around another woman staying trapped.”
That landed harder than anger.
Then she gave me something useful.
“Rafael is already in the city.”
Salvatore looked up.
“How do you know?”
“Lucia only uses the blue room when he’s close.”
I turned.
The blue room.
An old sitting room in Lucia’s townhouse.
Victoria continued.
“There’s a passage beneath it. Rafael used it during family disputes years ago.”
No police.
No raid.
Just family.
Exactly how Rafael preferred it.
I smiled for the first time that morning.
“Good.”
Victoria frowned.
“Good?”
“Yes.”
May you like
I looked back at her.
“I’m done waiting for ghosts to decide when they want to become visible.”
