Chapter 6
Thomas tried to correct himself.
“I meant destroyed himself.”
Valentina said nothing.
“He became reckless.”
Nothing.
“Obsessed.”
Still nothing.
Silence was useful.
Thomas hated it.
Finally:
“Matteo challenged men he couldn’t control.”
Valentina asked:
“Which men?”
He smiled.
“Now you want history?”
“I want truth.”
“Truth won’t make Ethan safer.”
There.
A threat disguised as wisdom.
Valentina’s eyes hardened.
Thomas continued:
“You have one child left. Think carefully.”
Marcus looked at him.
Even he heard it.
Valentina stepped closer.
“Say that again.”
Thomas smiled.
“You heard me.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I want everyone else to.”
Several capos had entered the terrace perimeter.
Not yet the conclave.
Trusted men responding to Valentina’s silent summons.
Thomas finally noticed.
His expression shifted.
Vanessa turned toward Marcus.
He looked trapped.
Valentina held up the tablet.
“My son recorded you discussing his drowning.”
No one moved.
Thomas said:
“A private family matter.”
One capo looked toward the pool.
Then at Valentina’s soaked gown.
“Family?”
Thomas snapped:
“Stay out of it.”
The capo did not.
That mattered.
Valentina asked:
“Did Thomas tell you I was stepping aside tonight?”
The man frowned.
“No.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
Marcus interrupted.
“Not everyone was supposed to know yet.”
Every face turned.
Marcus stopped.
Another slip.
Valentina looked at him.
“Who was?”
Silence.
Thomas said:
“Don’t answer.”
Marcus obeyed immediately.
There was the real structure.
Thomas commands.
Marcus follows.
Vanessa executes.
Valentina looked at her father.
“You’ve built a group inside mine.”
Thomas laughed.
“You sound paranoid.”
“Do I?”
She raised the tablet.
“Your son—”
Marcus bristled.
“Not his son.”
Valentina looked at him.
Thomas’s face became cold.
Marcus realized.
Too late.
He had corrected relationship reflexively.
Not family.
Associate.
Useful, not loved.
Vanessa looked between them.
Something else was wrong.
Then one capo approached Valentina quietly.
“Boss.”
Thomas flinched at the title.
The capo continued:
“Three men outside are wearing Thomas’s old silver crest.”
Valentina stared at her father.
May you like
He had retired that symbol four years ago.
Apparently only in public.
