Chapter 14
Thomas tried one last command.
“Everyone out.”
Nobody moved.
His face hardened.
“I said out.”
Still nothing.
Valentina stood at the head of the ballroom.
Not because of a chair.
Because everyone had already oriented toward her.
Thomas saw it.
Hated it.
“You trained them well.”
“No.”
“What?”
“They chose.”
Thomas laughed.
“People don’t choose loyalty.”
“They do when fear stops deciding.”
He stared.
Then pointed toward Ethan’s tablet.
“A three-year-old with a toy exposed me?”
Valentina’s expression cooled.
“Yes.”
Thomas’s face twisted.
He looked almost personally offended.
“That boy should have been asleep.”
“He was.”
“What?”
“He woke up because Vanessa was rehearsing beside the pool house.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
Ethan had accidentally left his tablet recording after watching cartoons.
Nothing clever.
Nothing strategic.
One child.
One forgotten device.
Thomas built an enormous conspiracy and lost control because a toddler forgot to close an app.
He laughed once.
Disbelieving.
“Ridiculous.”
Valentina almost smiled.
“Yes.”
That hurt him more.
He preferred grand enemies.
Not mistakes.
Thomas turned toward his former silver-crest men.
“I made you.”
One answered:
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“You promoted me.”
Another:
“You paid me.”
A third:
“You threatened my brother.”
Thomas stared.
The third continued:
“I called that loyalty because I was afraid to call it fear.”
Valentina said nothing.
Thomas looked at her.
“Happy?”
“No.”
His expression shifted.
“No?”
“Matteo is still dead.”
Silence.
“Ethan still went underwater.”
Nothing.
“Vanessa still put her hand on him.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“Then what do you want?”
Valentina looked at him.
“Distance.”
He laughed.
“From me?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll need me.”
“No.”
“Every family does.”
“No.”
Thomas’s voice sharpened.
“I know where the bodies are buried.”
Valentina stepped closer.
“That is not the same as knowing how to lead the living.”
May you like
For once, Thomas had no immediate answer.
And the capos heard that silence too.
