Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to create a fake family for her records. A perfectly polished backstory that covered up whatever she was hiding.
That alone pissed me off.
But now, there was another reason. Blair was my Fawn, which meant her secrets were now my business. I intended to find every single one of them.
She thought she was clever, putting her phone in stolen mode.
How fucking cute.
I sat in Julian’s office for an hour while he struggled to hack into her phone. He did, however, manage to gain access to her cloud account. He used that information to sign her back into her phone.
Nico needed to learn a thing or two from him.
I paid him and returned to my Porsche Panamera before driving to the Marchetti mansion, the home I’d grown up in. My car rolled to a stop in front of the gates, and I lifted my hand, giving a quick salute to the armed guards.
The gates opened immediately, and I drove through, going deeper onto the property.
Our estate sat beyond the outer limits of New York City. The location was close enough for us to control everything thathappened in the city, but far enough that we could disappear from it.
People claimed the Marchetti mansion was more secure than Fort Knox. They weren’t wrong. If anything, the protection had doubled over the past few years. Our enemy list kept getting longer.
This home was where I had learned to walk, where my father had put my first gun in my hands, and the only place in the world where I didn’t always feel like I had to watch my back.
It was a shelter of loyalty and a den of family secrets.
I parked in the circular drive, grabbed my bag, stepped out of my car, and headed for the front door. It was unlocked.
Inside, the foyer was quiet, except for the soft movements of the staff. I nodded toward a couple of housekeepers as I passed. Like the home, I’d grown up around them.
My footsteps resounded as I headed toward my father’s office on the right side of the foyer.
“Hi, honey.”
I stopped and turned to find my mother walking toward me. She wrapped me in a tight hug. I returned it automatically, kissing her cheek as we parted.
“I’ve missed you.” She grinned brightly, like it’d been years since we’d talked, though it’d only been a day.
Every day, she texted Seraphina and me without fail, saying she loved us. Her mother had died when she was young, so she swore she’d never make us question how much we mattered to her.
Sometimes, because of who my father was, some people overlooked how beautiful and intelligent she was. They only saw her as the wife of a cruel man. But she was the softness that had helped shape him into the great father he was to us. She was also by his side when she knew he needed to show his teeth during tough times.
She helped him balance his control.
So similar to how the Fawn System worked.
Still smiling, she pointed at me, her tone turning serious. “Your father is upset with you about something, but he refuses to tell me what it is.”
I shrugged, pretending I wasn’t as nervous as I was. “Guess I should go find out what I did, then.”
She nodded, kissed my cheek, and walked toward the staircase.
I knocked on my father’s office door.
“Come in,” his deep voice called from the other side.
I stepped inside, finding him sitting behind his massive oak desk with his posture relaxed in the black leather chair. Though I knew he was anything but.
My father lived in a constant state of tension.
