Chapter 13
Luciano met Rafael the next morning.
Not alone.
Celeste came.
So did Anthony.
Augusto did not.
That was deliberate.
Rafael waited at an abandoned Ferraro summer house two miles beyond the eastern vineyards. He was sixty-two now, gray-haired, broad-shouldered despite the limp the ravine had left him.
Luciano saw family resemblance immediately.
That irritated him.
Rafael looked at Celeste first.
“I’m sorry.”
She did not accept it.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Dario planned to provoke Luciano.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I might be involved.”
Rafael hesitated.
There.
The truth.
Celeste’s expression hardened.
“You’re not sorry I was used. You’re sorry it became dangerous.”
Rafael lowered his eyes.
Luciano said nothing.
He wanted to see whether the older man could tolerate accusation without rewriting it.
Rafael finally nodded.
“You’re right.”
That mattered.
Not enough.
But it mattered.
He explained his return.
For years he stayed away because his wife made him promise. She died five years earlier. Their son wanted nothing to do with Ferraro blood.
Rafael began watching Augusto after hearing Luciano had taken command.
At first, he believed the cycle might end.
Then Augusto started meeting Dario privately.
Marco reported it.
The old pattern returned.
“He was going to take your chair the way Father tried to take my life,” Rafael said.
Luciano stared at him.
“And you wanted proof.”
“Yes.”
“So you watched.”
Rafael closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Celeste looked away.
That was the cost.
Luciano stepped closer.
“You don’t get to call yourself better because you stood on the other side of the room while it happened.”
Rafael met his eyes.
“No.”
Good.
No excuses.
Then Rafael revealed why he had finally intervened.
The phone was not the only recording.
Augusto had arranged a second camera.
Hidden inside the graduation display.
It was still in the mansion.
And it had recorded a conversation before the reception began.
A conversation between Augusto—
May you like
and Dario.
One that would explain what they intended to do after Luciano “failed” in front of the family.
