"Ours." Liam's voice is flat. "He's been telling people he's connected to the Sartoris now. That his daughter married into the family. That he's good for the money."
Red edges into my vision.
"He's using Antonella's name to gamble."
"Yes."
I grip the armrests of my wheelchair until my knuckles go white.
"How much does he owe?"
"So far? Forty thousand." Liam sets the tablet down. "But he's still playing. The number will be higher by morning."
Pietro leans back in his chair. His expression is unreadable.
"The mission was a test," he says. "We wanted to see if he could be trusted with simple tasks. If he could follow instructions without supervision."
"He failed," I say.
"Spectacularly."
Valentino moves away from the window. "What about the son? Claudio?"
Liam pulls up another file on his tablet. "Different story entirely. Claudio Romano has exceeded every expectation we set for him."
I look at the screen. Reports. Numbers. Assessments from the men who've been working with him.
"He's smart," Liam continues. "Capable. Learns fast. The import business is already running more efficiently than it did under his father's management."
"So the son is competent," Valentino says. "And the father is a liability."
"That's the summary, yes."
Pietro drums his fingers on the desk. "There's more."
Liam nods. He swipes to a new screen. Text messages. Phone logs.
"The youngest daughter," he says. "Gianna Romano. She's been trying to contact her father for the past two days."
I lean forward. "Trying how?"
"Calls. Texts. She's getting worried." Liam scrolls through the messages. "She thinks something happened to him. She's been asking Claudio if he knows where their father went."
"Does Claudio know?"
"He knows Eraldo is in New York on business for us. He doesn't know about the gambling."
Pietro looks at me. "Vittoria installed monitoring software on everyone's phones. Family and extended family. We see every call. Every message. Every search."
"Gianna's messages to Eraldo are getting desperate," Pietro continues. "If he doesn't respond soon, she'll escalate. She'll call Antonella. Maybe even try to come to New York herself."
"She's nineteen," I say. "She doesn't know anything about this world."
"Which makes her dangerous." Valentino crosses his arms. "Unpredictable. She could cause problems without meaning to."
The room falls silent.
Pietro's eyes stay on me. Waiting.
