Chapter 3
The recording continued.
Marcus:
“What if the kid swims?”
Thomas laughed.
“He’s three.”
Vanessa:
“He panics around deep water.”
Another pause.
Then:
“He’ll sink before anyone understands what happened.”
Valentina stopped the recording.
Nobody spoke.
Thomas finally sighed.
“You’re listening without context.”
She stared.
“What context makes that acceptable?”
“It was hypothetical.”
Ethan whispered:
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pressed closer to Valentina.
“Grandpa said practice.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa said:
“He misunderstands adult language.”
Valentina turned.
“Then explain it.”
Silence.
She resumed.
Marcus’s voice:
“When he goes in, wedding guests need to be looking toward the DJ.”
Vanessa:
“I can handle that.”
Thomas:
“And once Valentina dives, Marcus gets the tablet.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Valentina looked at him.
“You knew Ethan had recorded you.”
He said nothing.
She continued playing.
Thomas:
“If she sees the clip before the conclave, everything collapses.”
Valentina stopped.
That word mattered.
Conclave.
Not wedding.
Not family.
Moretti business.
The senior capos were scheduled to meet privately after midnight.
Thomas had insisted.
Officially to discuss wedding security.
Valentina had allowed it.
“Everything?”
She looked at her father.
“What collapses?”
Thomas leaned back.
“The organization has been unstable.”
“No.”
“You’re twenty-five.”
“Yes.”
“You’re emotional.”
Valentina almost smiled.
“You restrained me while my child drowned.”
Thomas spread his hands.
“And look at you.”
“What?”
“Exactly what I predicted.”
There.
He believed her reaction proved his point.
Vanessa added:
“You choose Ethan over every room you enter.”
Valentina looked at her.
“Yes.”
Vanessa blinked.
The answer was too easy.
Valentina continued:
“That is not the weakness you think it is.”
Marcus laughed.
“The capos disagree.”
She turned.
“Which capos?”
Marcus realized.
Too late.
Thomas stared at him with contempt.
“Idiot.”
Valentina saw the hierarchy immediately.
Marcus knew pieces.
Vanessa knew more.
Thomas knew everything.
Then Ethan whispered:
“Mom…”
He pointed at the tablet.
“There’s one where Grandpa says Daddy.”
Valentina stopped breathing.
May you like
Ethan’s father had died two years earlier.
In what Thomas had always called an accident.
