What. The. Fuck.
I swallowed down my urge to scream into the phone. Of course. Of fucking course. My father hadn’t even been buried, and Vita was already looking for some way to use the situation to her advantage. Just when I thought I knew how low she could stoop, she somehow stooped even lower. Only yesterday, Rom had told me about how she’d whored him out when he was only eighteen in order to getkompromaton a police chief’s wife. We were supposed to protect the family, not exploit our own blood. But Mother didn’t care. There were no lines she wouldn’t cross in her pursuit of power.
“So what does all of this mean?” I ground out.
“It means your father left no enforceable proof of succession,” Richard said. “So for now, you stay underboss and retain control of the criminal side by default. But Ferraro Holdings is another matter. Your mother is chairwoman of the board, and the board voted to make her CEO this morning.”
Alessio’s eyes widened.
“What?” I snapped. “How am I only hearing about this now?”
“You haven’t been involved with Ferraro Holdings. I only learned about it after the fact.”
“Then call for another vote.”
“You don’t have the authority to do that yet. If you inherit control, you’ll be able to undo it. But until then, your hands are tied.”
So the family was carved up into two halves. For the next sixty days, one would be run by my mother, and one run by me.
“What about after the mourning period ends?”
“Well, that depends on what happens at the swearing-in ceremony,” Richard said. “Without that final page, the question of who’s don will fall to a vote. It will be up to the capos.”
“This is bullshit, and we both know it. She can’t?—”
The door to my office opened.
I looked up just in time to see my mother walk in.
CHAPTER 11
COSIMO
Vita wasthe perfect picture of a mourning wife. Black dress, hair pulled back, face free of her normal makeup.
Anger tightened around my throat at the sight of her.
“I’ll call you back,” I said to Richard and hung up. “How did you get into my house?”
“One of the capos let me in.” She sat down on the sofa. “We should talk, Cosimo.” Her gaze drifted to Alessio. “Alone.”
“Alessio stays.” That had been one of her tactics when we were children—distancing my brothers and me so that we could never unite against her. But it wasn’t going to work now. “Richard just called. Congratulations. Enjoy your brief stint as CEO of Ferraro Holdings, because as soon as I’m voted in as don, you won’t have a position in the company at all.”
Her lips tightened. “You’re upset. We can discuss it.”
My fists clenched. I wanted to wring her goddamn neck. “There’s nothing to discuss. I’m the eldest son. I was raised to be Dad’s successor.”
The door opened again.
“Romolo,” I snapped, “you missed quite a show. Mom arrived here just as I got a call from our lawyer. Turns out there’s a page missing from Dad’s will.” I moved to stand in front of her. “She was about to explain how that happened.”
Her lips pursed, as if I was the one out of line. “I don’t know what happened,” she said.
“Don’t know? The safe where the will was kept only has three keys—one with Father, one with the lawyer, and one with you. There’s a record of you accessing the safe yesterday. You didn’t even bother to hide your tracks.” Probably because she hadn’t had time to figure out how. She’d had to get to the safe before the lawyer.
Mother held my stare. “I was there to get jewelry for the funeral. I didn’t touch the will.”
I scoffed. “The missing page specifies who gets control of the family. What are you playing at?”
