Don’t smell the paper, I tell myself. Don’t think of rain. Don’t think of my father’s scarf. Don’t think of the contract. Don’t think of his thumb beside my name.
I read on.
Council exposure to be limited. Official narrative to hold pending stabilization.
Official narrative.Accident. Deal gone wrong. Wrong place, wrong time. A lie dressed in public clothing.
Pending stabilization.How tidy. How beautifully criminal. How very Italian of them to murder language after murdering my father.
There are more notes beneath.
Dante removed from immediate operations.
Communication restricted.
External statements aligned.
Irish response to be monitored.
Brennan daughter.
I stop. There I am.
Brennan daughter to be brought under Vitale protection.
I press my tongue hard against my teeth. I taste blood.
Protection.The word that opened the door of this house. The word I accepted because I had no proof, no allies, no power except my ability to sit very still while men mistook my silence for collapse.
Alessandro offered protection after writing this. After knowing. After Dante confessed. After deciding containment mattered more than my father’s blood.
Dante to remote holding. Situation contained.
My eyes stop. There it is. Not just the confession. Not just the lie.
The choice.
He knew. He contained it. He moved his son out of sight and called it resolution. My father’s blood reduced to a logistical problem. A disruption to be managed. A liability to be relocated.
I press my palm flat against my stomach before I can stop myself. A reflex. Unwelcome. Immediate. Absolute.
I close my eyes. For one second, just one, I try to imagine leaving. Walking out. Taking this file. Taking what’s left of my father. Taking myself somewhere outside this system where truth might mean something again.
The thought collapses before it finishes forming. There is no outside. Not anymore.
The cage didn’t close when I accepted his protection. It didn’t close when I refused Rory’s offer.
It closed here. On this page.
In his handwriting.
Chapter 31
The Confrontation
POV:Alessandro
She comes to my study at midnight. The guards let her pass because I told them to. The door opens. She enters.
