Chapter 5
The ambition appeared in the jewelry preview documents.
Grant had arranged several private meetings with collectors under the Hale name.
Normal at first glance.
Then I saw the invitations.
No Lombardi insignia.
No reference to Isabella.
No mention that the showroom belonged to my network.
Grant had been using Lombardi access while gradually removing Lombardi identity.
Clever.
Petty.
Dangerous.
I looked at him.
“You’ve been building your own room inside my house.”
He smiled bitterly.
“I’m thirty-eight years old. I don’t need your permission to exist.”
“No.”
I agreed.
“You needed my doors.”
His face tightened.
There it was.
He wanted independence without giving up what proximity to me purchased.
Isabella stared at the papers.
“I didn’t know about these.”
Grant turned toward her.
“You didn’t need to.”
That sentence explained the marriage too.
She did not need to know.
Noah did not need the Lombardi name.
I did not need to notice.
Everyone’s role shrank until Grant stood larger.
Then I found a guest list for a private dinner scheduled six weeks later.
Grant Hale.
Vanessa Hale.
Three senior collectors.
Two old Lombardi capos.
No Isabella.
No Noah.
I looked up.
“What was this?”
Grant said nothing.
Vanessa did.
“A business dinner.”
“With my capos.”
Silence.
I stared at the seating order.
Grant at the head.
Not me.
Not officially.
Symbolically.
May you like
He had been rehearsing what power looked like without me in the room.
My grandson’s name disappearing was only one part of clearing the picture.
