I reach over with my free hand to pat his arm. “I call it like I see it.”
A moment later, the door opens again. Bes drops my hand.
Ansaldo walks through. The man wears a uniform without wearing a uniform: today, he dons a dark brown long-sleeved shirt with a black vest, and dark brown pants. Half a dozen rings glitter across his fingers, including a signet ring I didn’t notice him wearing last night. He reeks of espresso when he passes by us without a word.
He settles into his imposing, high-backed leather chair, splaying his large fingers across the desk.
“What’s this about?” he asks. “I’m a very busy man.”
“I simply wish for some answers,” I explain, trying to keep my words kind and my tone even, despite wanting to punch him in the jaw. “Given how you treated me last night, I feel I’m owed something.”
He squints. “Do you, now?”
“Unless you want me to make your life a living hell while you keep me trapped here? I do.”
He grimaces. “I suppose that’s only fair, considering your family has been involved in the order since its inception. You must have many questions.”
I blink at him. I’m… speechless. Actuallyspeechless. That doesn’t happen to me often, and I don’t care for it.
He nearly confirmed Nonna as being part of the order last night, though I didn’t want to believe it. I refused to fully consider it because that would mean that Nonna has been lying to me all my life. And I couldn’t stomach it. Not after trustingher so implicitly; she was the only parent I’ve had for nearly my entire life.
But for my ancestors to have been here from the beginning? My stomach sours. How could Nonna have kept so much from me? Yes, everyone’s allowed their secrets, but this is life-altering, in more ways than one. Especially when she clearly involved the order with my whereabouts without my knowledge. She had to have known that coming to this place, learning about all this, was a possibility.
Don’t forget about the blood oath, I remind myself.If she was part of the order, she would’ve been forced to take it.However, based on Bes’s explanation, she would’ve been able to tell me some things. Not the full truth, but some part of it.
Instead, she kept me completely in the dark this entire time.
Legs giving out beneath me, I take a seat in the chair opposite the desk, with Bes and Cec settling on either side of me. Ansaldo watches with calculated attention. Deciding to at least appear at ease, I slump into the hard wood and thin cushion.
Trying to soften the hard-beating of my heart still, I peer around the room pointedly. “I thought you’d have a bigger office, being the head of a world order and all.”
He regards me with a bland expression. Although he does steeple his fingers on the edge of the desk.I hit a nerve.It gives me some comfort.
“Your family has a knack for getting under my skin. It’s… heartening to see you’re no different.”
I’m sure it is.It heartensme, however, to know I’m not the only one in my family to not take this place or its leader at face value.
“Before we begin,” he says, glaring pointedly at his son and nephew, “I want to remind the two of you that there’s no fraternizing within the walls of the order, no matter the other person’s standing.”
They must nod, which seems to be good enough for Ansaldo. Raising a brow, I find it interesting that Ansaldo felt he needed to make that clear for them both in front of me. I know for certain Cec has already defied this order. But I hope Bes hasn’t. A strange pang of jealousy strikes at my stomach.
Then I remind myself that I called this meeting for a reason, and that reason is not to dig into the order’s rules for fraternizing.
As I open my mouth to ask my first query, a knock sounds behind me. Ansaldo rises to his feet to answer, speaking softly with whoever’s on the other side.
With him occupied for a moment, I turn around in my seat to regard Bes and Cec, whispering, “There’s no chance people aren’t fraternizing here. What the hell else is there to do all day?”
Cec chuckles, but Bes is the one who responds. “People take the rules very seriously here. That being said, I’m certain there aresomemembers willing to bend them.”
I repeat Ansaldo’s phrase from yesterday: “Bes Belzoni, as I live and breathe.”
Color marks up his cheeks. “We both know I was speaking of Cec.”
Cec shrugs. “Guilty as charged.”
I focus on Bes instead. “Are you saying you’ve never fraternized here before?”
Bes clears his throat, shifting uncomfortably in his shoes.
