"You've done this before," I observed. "Set traps like this."
"Many times. It's how you survive in this world. Trust, but verify. And when trust breaks, you need proof before you act."
After all three cousins had been told their respective false information, we waited.
Giulio had surveillance teams positioned at all three locations: the route to the upstate rehab facility, the safe house, the document location.
"Now we watch," Cesare said. "Someone will move. They always do."
Hours passed, agonizing and slow. I tried to rest but couldn't. Kept thinking about the three cousins.
Marco with his gambling debts and desperate eyes.
Luca with his dead brother and carefully controlled rage.
Sofia with her lost daughter and quiet competence.
One of them was a traitor. But which one?
Evening came and still there was no movement at any of the three locations.
"Maybe they're being careful," I suggested. "Waiting until night."
"Maybe. Or maybe we're wrong about all of them."
The doubt crept in like fog. What ifil falcomeant something else entirely? What if we were chasing the wrong people?
That evening, Bianca returned one more time. "Can we talk?" she asked me. "Alone? Just for a minute?"
Cesare looked at me. I nodded. "It's fine."
Bianca and I stepped into the hallway, the guard staying close but out of earshot.
"I know you don't trust me," Bianca started. "I know I destroyed any right to your trust. But I need to tell you something."
"What?"
"I'm asking Cesare to let me leave. After Viktor's bail hearing, after everything is settled—if he allows it, I want to leave New York. Go somewhere far away. Europe maybe. Start over."
I felt a complicated mix of emotions. Relief? Sadness? "Has he agreed?"
"Not yet. But I'm hoping... I'm hoping if I cooperate fully, if I testify against Viktor, if I help in every way I can—he might let me go instead of..." She didn't finish the sentence.
Instead of killing me. The unspoken words hung between us.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you're my sister. And because I want you to know—I am sorry. For everything. The drugging, the wedding, all of it. I was selfish and cowardly and I destroyed your life."
"You didn't destroy my life," I said quietly. "You changed it. Violently. Horribly. But I'm not destroyed."
"You're stronger than I ever was."
"I had to be. You didn't give me a choice."
We stood in uncomfortable silence, two women who shared DNA and nothing else.
"Will you tell me when the baby is born?" Bianca asked. "Even if I'm gone? Even if we never see each other again?"
