Chapter 9
Matteo Ross returned before Luca could leave the city.
Not voluntarily.
My men brought both.
Matteo looked disappointed.
Not frightened.
That hurt more.
“Massimo.”
“Matteo.”
He looked at Isabella.
Then Noah.
Then Grant.
“You made a mess.”
Grant laughed.
“Me?”
Matteo ignored him.
I stared.
“You warned Luca.”
“Yes.”
Simple.
No shame.
“Why?”
“Because you were about to destroy thirty years of planning over a child’s paper flower.”
Noah looked down at the crushed pieces.
I felt rage.
Matteo continued:
“This is exactly the problem.”
“What?”
“You’ve become sentimental.”
“No.”
“You stop meetings for Noah.”
“He’s my grandson.”
“You changed security because Isabella called crying.”
“She was bruised.”
He shrugged.
“And?”
Same word.
Always the same word from men who needed cruelty to seem mature.
I looked at Luca.
“What were you promised?”
“North Harbor.”
Grant turned.
“What?”
Luca smiled faintly.
“You thought it was yours?”
Grant stared.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Good.
The liars were discovering they had been lied to.
I looked at Matteo.
“And you?”
“The organization after you.”
I almost laughed.
“I’m fifty-nine.”
“Exactly.”
“You planned succession without me.”
“I planned continuity.”
There it was.
Another civilized word.
“Through Grant?”
“No.”
Matteo looked at him almost contemptuously.
“Grant was access.”
Isabella flinched.
Grant’s face emptied.
Vanessa snapped:
“You said—”
Matteo laughed.
“I said what you needed.”
I watched the structure collapse.
Matteo used Luca.
Luca used Grant.
Grant used Isabella.
Vanessa helped control Noah.
Everyone believed they were one step from power.
No one realized they were someone else’s tool.
“What did Vale want?”
Matteo answered.
“North Harbor.”
“And you?”
“Your chair.”
Honest.
Finally.
I looked at Grant.
“Your wife was a door.”
Matteo nodded.
Grant shouted:
“She became more than that.”
Isabella stared at him.
“When?”
Grant looked at her.
Still no answer.
Noah whispered:
“Daddy?”
Grant’s face broke for one second.
My grandson held the ruined flower pieces.
“Did you like it?”
Silence.
May you like
Then Grant looked away.
And whatever remained of Noah’s hope broke quieter than the flower had.
