Chapter 11
Vivienne’s marriage to Cassandro had never been the end of the plan.
It was access.
Gideon explained it without drama, perhaps because men who have lived around betrayal long enough stop hearing how monstrous ordinary sentences sound.
“Once Vivienne became your wife, Damian’s men moved through the house without questions.”
Cassandro looked at Damian.
He said nothing.
“Then?”
“Your routines became easier to predict.”
“Why did they need my routines?”
Gideon hesitated.
Cassandro already knew the answer would be ugly.
“To create a crisis.”
Vivienne laughed sharply.
“He’s protecting himself.”
Gideon looked at her.
“No.”
“You agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Then say all of it.”
He did.
The plan had been simple.
A family event.
A security failure.
Audrey frightened but unharmed.
Cassandro forced to react emotionally in front of senior capos.
Then Vivienne would present herself as the person who could calm the child and steady the house while Damian and Gideon controlled the response.
Cassandro stared at him.
“You were going to use Audrey.”
Gideon looked ashamed for the first time.
“Yes.”
Vivienne scoffed.
“She would have been safe.”
Cassandro turned.
“She was pushed into a pool yesterday.”
“She wouldn’t answer.”
“She’s three.”
“She remembered something Natalie showed her.”
“And that justified drowning her?”
Vivienne’s mouth tightened.
“She was standing on shallow steps.”
Mrs. Keller stared at her.
“You held her down.”
Vivienne snapped:
“If the brat had said what she knew, none of this would have happened.”
Silence.
There.
The room changed.
Vivienne heard it too late.
Cassandro looked at her for a long moment.
Then Gideon continued quietly.
“Natalie knew about the staged crisis.”
“How?”
“She heard Damian and me discussing it at Black Cedar.”
“And what was supposed to happen to me afterward?”
Gideon said nothing.
Damian did.
“You step back.”
Cassandro looked at him.
“Voluntarily?”
Damian smiled bitterly.
“If possible.”
“And if not?”
No answer.
Cassandro looked toward the ceiling where Audrey slept.
Natalie had spent three years hiding because she believed the conspiracy was larger than one kidnapping.
She was right.
They had removed his wife.
May you like
Then married another woman into her place.
And eventually, they planned to remove him too.
