Chapter 4
I looked across the reception guests.
Capos.
Cousins.
Old advisers.
Men who had watched me put an engagement ring on Victoria’s hand four months earlier.
One of them had known.
Maybe more.
I asked Elena:
“Did you ever get a name?”
“No.”
“But I heard one.”
“What?”
“Marconi.”
The room shifted.
Small.
Enough.
I knew who reacted.
Silvio Marconi.
Fifty-nine.
My father’s former strategist.
The man who had argued hardest for the Sloan alliance.
He did not move dramatically.
Did not run.
He simply lowered his champagne glass before anyone else.
I looked at him.
“Silvio.”
He sighed.
Not surprise.
Resignation.
Rafe brought him forward.
Victoria immediately said:
“He only helped with communication.”
Good.
She defended him too quickly.
Silvio looked at her.
“You should stop talking.”
I almost smiled.
Everyone unraveling.
“What did you know?”
Silvio looked at me.
“I knew Elena was pregnant.”
“How long?”
“Five months.”
Same.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He glanced at Victoria.
Then Preston.
Then finally:
“Because the Sloan marriage mattered more.”
There it was.
Not personal hatred.
Strategy.
The ugliest betrayals often begin with people calling themselves practical.
Silvio believed the Sloan alliance would stabilize three territories and end two old disputes.
Elena’s child threatened that.
Not because the baby was dangerous.
Because my son—or daughter—would make a marriage to Victoria less necessary.
Worse, the child created another branch of Caradonna legitimacy outside Sloan influence.
Silvio called it “destabilizing.”
I looked at Elena’s stomach.
“My child is destabilizing?”
He had the sense not to answer.
Then I asked:
“Did you know Preston tried to move her?”
Silence.
That was enough.
“Where were they taking her?”
Silvio closed his eyes.
“To the airport.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She knew something Silvio did not.
“The driver said we were not going to any airport.”
Preston’s face emptied.
Elena continued.
“He said, ‘Once we cross the state line, nobody asks who she was.’”
Now I understood Preston’s first question.
Why is she still alive?
May you like
He had not expected a relocation.
He had expected an ending.
