Chapter 2
Gregory stared at me like I had become a stranger in my own skin.
“Valeria,” he said quietly, “you are making a mistake.”
Noah whimpered behind me.
That sound made my hands curl into fists.
I turned just enough to see Matteo lift Noah into his arms and move him behind the line of bodyguards.
Paulie stood beside them with one hand inside his jacket.
Nobody in that ballroom breathed normally anymore.
My husband brushed a scarf off his shoulder.
His perfect black suit was wrinkled.
His perfect mask was gone.
“You don’t want to do this here,” he said.
I laughed once.
It came out broken.
“You locked my son behind a wall.”
A woman near the bar covered her mouth.
Gregory’s mother, Carmela, rose from her chair.
She was dressed in silver, her hair pinned like a crown, her eyes sharp enough to cut glass.
“That child is confused,” she said.
I looked at her.
Noah had always been afraid of her.
I used to tell myself she was strict.
Old-fashioned.
Protective of the Romano name.
Now I saw the way she looked at my son.
Like he was evidence.
“Sit down, Carmela,” I said.
Her mouth opened.
I had never spoken to her like that.
Not once.
Gregory took one step toward me.
“Enough.”
“No,” I said. “Not enough.”
I pointed at the screen.
“How did that feed get there?”
Nobody answered.
The video had interrupted the anniversary slideshow.
One moment, photos of our wedding.
Then Noah.
I looked at the young technician near the sound booth.
He was shaking.
“I didn’t do it,” he blurted. “The system switched by itself.”
Gregory’s eyes snapped to him.
The boy went silent.
That was when my cousin Daniel pushed through the crowd.
Daniel was not family by blood, but he was my father’s godson, and he had loved me like a sister since I was twelve.
He held up a tablet.
“It came from the internal security server,” he said.
Gregory’s face changed.
Just a flicker.
But I saw it.
Daniel looked at me.
“There are more cameras than the ones listed on the estate map.”
Carmela slammed her palm on the table.
“This is not a courtroom.”
“No,” Daniel said. “It is a crime scene.”
The word hit the room hard.
Crime scene.
In Gregory Romano’s ballroom.
In front of everyone.
Gregory moved fast.
He reached for Noah.
Matteo blocked him.
“Step back,” Matteo said.
Gregory stared at him.
“You work for me.”
Matteo did not move.
“I worked for her father first.”
A low murmur rippled through the capos.
That was the first crack in Gregory’s power.
Carmela saw it too.
Her eyes swept the room.
“You all forget whose house this is.”
I turned toward her.
“This house was my father’s.”
She smiled.
“And your father is dead.”
For years, I had swallowed comments like that.
For years, I had smiled at dinners while they discussed business as if I was decorative.
For years, Gregory told me I was lucky he protected me after my father died.
Now my child was shaking behind armed men because of that protection.
I walked to the table where Carmela sat.
“Where is the key to that room?”
She looked up at me.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
I grabbed her silver clutch and dumped it onto the table.
Lipstick.
Rosary beads.
A folded silk handkerchief.
A small black access card.
Gregory moved.
Too late.
I picked it up.
The room exploded into whispers.
Carmela’s eyes burned into mine.
“You ungrateful little girl.”
I held up the card.
“Why do you have a key to the room where my son was locked?”
She stood slowly.
“Because someone had to protect this family from your weakness.”
Noah cried out.
“Grandma said I ruined everything.”
The entire ballroom froze again.
Carmela’s face twitched.
Gregory whispered, “Mother.”
And that was when I understood.
He had not acted alone.
He had never acted alone.
Daniel touched my arm.
“We need to leave now.”
I nodded.
But before I could reach Noah, Gregory clapped his hands once.
May you like
Every door to the ballroom closed.
The locks clicked.
