This feels like someone studying the seams.
I write that down.
“Someone is studying the seams.”
Then I underline it twice.
Because that is what all of these details have in common. None of them are the center of power. Not Papà’s office. Not Vito’s men. Not Nico’s clubs. Not Antonio’s negotiations. Not Roberto’s legal walls.
The seams.
The places where one world touches another.
I sit back slowly.
My heart is beating harder now.
Not fear this time.
Recognition. Something is there.
I can feel it.
The attack on the casino floor was not only an attack on me.
It made The Regent Club look unstable, dangerous, vulnerable. It gave the press a story, the investors a reason to panic, and regulators a reason to ask whether the Contis can maintain public safety inside a casino we fought too hard to make legitimate.
And if the casino looks weak, I look weak.
If I look weak, Papà’s legitimate future looks weak.
I stare at the words until they blur.
That cannot be coincidence.
It might not be the whole truth, but it is not nothing.
I reach for my laptop and pull up the first batch of files Antonio sent over. I do this until the headache threatens to explode, and Bianca calls out that dinner is ready.
I have to press my fingers to my temples and close my eyes.
Dinner is a blur.
I am there because not being there would be noticed and because I have to look away from my laptop for at least an hour. I sit. I eat enough to avoid Bianca’s attention. I answer when someone speaks directly to me. Children are passed from lap to lap.
Adrian is there too.
He should be resting. Of course he is not.
He sits because Elena tells him to sit and because even he is not foolish enough to challenge her. He is pale, though he hides it well. Too still again. Too careful with his movements. He’s acting like a man who has decided pain is an inconvenience and nothing more.
I do not look at his mouth.
I do not look at his hands.
I mostly succeed.
Dinner ends eventually. I know this because people start retreating. Babies first. Then toddlers. Then exhausted mothers. Then men who claim they are done working and are absolutely lying.
