"Fuck off, Adrian."
He leaves.
I close the door, lean against it.
Someone with inside knowledge.
The pattern changed three weeks ago.
Someone with access to both families.
I pull out my phone, scroll to Emmanuel's message from over a week ago. The one I'd ignored while at the beach house:
"Mrs. Marini lied about meeting her sister-in-law. Sera's guards confirmed no meeting. I don't know where she went, but she disappeared for over an hour. Thought you should know."
I'd planned to confront her about it. Then Antonio's health declined, and I let it slide.
Where did she go that day?
I think about the timeline. Emmanuel's message came the day before I took Gemma to the Hamptons. Right around when these new attacks started.
I already knew Alexei found out about our partnership. That's why I ended it—to protect her from getting caught in the crossfire.
But Adrian's talking about NEW attacks. Recent ones. After I told Gemma to stop.
After I specifically ended our partnership to keep her safe from Alexei.
And someone's still feeding him information.
Someone with insider knowledge of the Neros.
The perfume outside Antonio's door. Her disappearances. The way she looked at me in the car coming back from the Hamptons—guilty but defiant.
Emmanuel's report about her lying.
She didn't stop when I told her to.
She went to him directly.
My wife made a deal with Alexei Morozov behind my back.
The realization hits like a physical blow.
I think about last night. The way she looked at me. The way she said she'd missed me.
Was any of it real?
Or was she playing me this whole time?
I need proof. Need to be sure before I do something I can't take back.
I pull up the security feeds, start scrolling through footage from the day Emmanuel reported her missing.
It takes twenty minutes to find it.
There. Columbia campus. Gemma entering the student center.
Then nothing for forty-five minutes.
