Chapter 4
Cassandro did not question Audrey further.
He wanted to.
Every part of him wanted the missing years back immediately, but fear had already been used against his daughter too many times that afternoon.
He carried her inside and gave her to Mrs. Keller.
“No questions unless she asks first.”
Mrs. Keller nodded.
Vivienne laughed from behind him.
“She’s three, Cassandro. You’re treating her like a witness.”
He turned.
“No. I’m treating her like my daughter.”
That silenced her.
Back inside the hidden room, one of the bodyguards found a narrow compartment beneath the cot. Inside was an old voice recorder wrapped in a hand towel.
Damian went pale.
Cassandro noticed.
He pressed play.
At first there was only movement. Then Natalie’s voice came through, low and hurried.
“If Cassandro hears this, Damian knows I found the south accounts.”
Cassandro’s jaw tightened.
Natalie continued.
“He’s been buying men who already sit at our table. Vivienne knows. I heard them arguing about what happens after Cassandro signs the west alliance.”
There were no papers in the room. No legal documents. Natalie had not been collecting evidence like an investigator.
She had been remembering names.
Routes.
Meetings.
Loyalty.
Exactly the things a Mafia family actually lived on.
The recording continued.
“Damian says Cassandro is too loyal to blood. Vivienne says that can be fixed.”
Then footsteps.
Natalie’s breathing changed.
The next voice belonged to Vivienne.
“Still talking?”
The recording shifted violently.
Vivienne’s voice became clearer.
“You should have learned when to stop digging.”
Natalie answered.
“I’m telling him tonight.”
Damian spoke from farther away.
“No, you’re not.”
A child cried.
Audrey.
Cassandro closed his eyes.
Natalie’s voice changed immediately.
“Don’t touch her.”
Vivienne laughed.
“Then cooperate.”
The recording ended.
Cassandro stood very still.
Damian finally spoke.
“She was going to destroy an alliance.”
Cassandro looked at him.
“You used my daughter to silence my wife.”
Damian’s face hardened.
“Natalie put Audrey in the middle first.”
There it was.
The first justification.
Blame the person being threatened for caring about what was threatened.
Cassandro looked down at the recorder.
May you like
Natalie had not disappeared because she wanted another life.
She had disappeared because someone discovered exactly what she loved enough to surrender for.
