Silence.
"Strategic. Controlled. Worthy of legacy."
Lorcan stares at me like I've just admitted to setting myself on fire.
"How?" Jino's voice cuts through the silence like a blade. "How the fuck could Luca possibly believe you after you murdered his son?"
I meet his eyes.
"Because I made a trade."
"What kind of trade?"
I take a breath.
"I swore to betray Salvatore and the Bavga family. I will provide Luca intelligence on all Bavga operations—shipping routes, suppliers, distribution networks, law enforcement contacts. Every piece of leverage Salvatore has built over thirty years. Every vulnerability. Every secret." I pause. "I'm giving Luca everything he needs to dismantle my father's empire piece by piece."
Jino's face goes white, then red. "That'smyfamily too, Giovanni."
"I know."
"Marco. Angelo. Dom. Ricky. Yourbrothers?—"
"I know."
"And you just—what? Handed them over? ToLuca LaRiccia?"
"Yes."
Jino lunges forward, but Lorcan catches him by the shoulder.
I step away from Emmaleen, pacing across Lorcan's great room, my hands in my pockets. I thought I made peace with this a long time ago.
I didn't realize until this afternoon, that I hadn't.
"You want to know why?" My voice comes out low. "You want to know why I decided to burn down my own family, Jino?"
Jino glares at me, breathing hard.
"Because they were never my family. Not really."
I touch the gash on my temple, feeling the dried blood crack under my fingers.
"When I was eight years old, Salvatore traded me to Luca like currency. Handed me over to settle a debt because his sister fucked the wrong man. They tied me to a post in a warehouse. Beat me. Starved me. Ten days, Jino. I was eight. Seventy pounds. By day ten, I was hallucinating, pissing blood, begging for water."
My voice drops.
"And you know what Salvatore did when I escaped? When I dislocated my own thumb, shot a guard, and ran barefoot through Pittsburgh in February?"
Jino says nothing.
"He beat me. Split my lip. Cracked two ribs. Told me Iruinedhis negotiation. That I should've stayed put and let them finish whatever deal he'd made."
I laugh—it sounds wrong even to me.
"That was the first time. Not the last. Growing up, every mistake earned a beating. Every question earned a slap. Every time I tried to be smarter, better,worthy—he reminded me I wasn't. That I was the runt. The mistake. The son who should'vebeen a daughter so at least I'd have been useful for a marriage alliance.
"So he exiled me. Sent me to Riverview—a backwater nobody wanted—and paid me off with a mansion in the middle of nowhere and a Lamborghini like they were consolation prizes for not mattering. Gave me the restaurant, the territory, the illusion of power." I pause. "But we both know what it really was. A burial. He wanted me gone. Out of sight. No longer his problem."
