"I'm trying to help you?—"
"You're trying to help yourself. You want me to marry Caterina because it benefits you. It gives you access to Bellandi power, Bellandi connections. I'm not interested."
"Then you're a fool."
I hang up.
He doesn't call back.
But two days later, Bianca comes to me with a message.
"Someone approached Maria at the school," she says, standing in my office doorway. "Gave her an envelope addressed to me."
I take the envelope. Inside is a handwritten note on expensive stationery. His handwriting—I'd recognize it anywhere. The same script that signed my school papers, wrote birthday cards, penned the letter that almost destroyed our family.
Miss Mancini,
I believe we have much to discuss. Your current situation is untenable, and I may have a solution that benefits us both. Please meet me tomorrow at 2:00 pm at the address below. Come alone.
—Giulio Vitale
The address is a café in Manhattan. Neutral ground where he can make his offer without witnesses.
Clever. Always so clever.
"Did you respond?" I ask.
"I told Maria to tell whoever gave it to her that I'm not interested." She crosses her arms. "Then I came straight here."
Good girl.
I read the note again.A solution that benefits us both.He's offering to pay her off. To make her disappear quietly so I can marry Caterina and he can benefit from the alliance.
Rage floods through me.
"What are we going to do?" Bianca asks.
I go to the fireplace, throw the note inside and watch the paper curl and blacken as I’m thinking how to answer.
"I'm going to treat my father the way I treat any other opponent—with strategy."
She’s not saying a word as I pull out my phone and call Luca. "Hello, brother. I need surveillance on Giulio's staff. Everyone who works for him—secretaries, drivers, security. I want to know who they talk to, where they go, what they say."
"How long?"
"Until I don't need it anymore."
“Done, brother.”
When I hang up, Bianca is watching me with something like sadness in her eyes.
"He's your father," she says quietly. “Family shouldn’t be like this to each other…”
"It’s been a long time since I stopped considering him my father." I pull her close. "His behavior is something I don't tolerate from anyone."
She doesn't argue. Just wraps her arms around my waist and holds on.
The distance between me and Giulio is no longer emotional. It's operational.
