THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED ME REFUSE TO LET HIS FIANCÉE CUT THEIR ENGAGEMENT CAKE—THEN SHE EXPLAINED MY BURN BEFORE HE HAD EVEN ASKED ABOUT MY HAND.

Enzo Moretti entered the east wing carrying flowers.

That was the first thing I noticed.

White lilies wrapped in brown paper.

The second thing I noticed was that nobody had called him.

Mrs. Carter stiffened beside me.

Daniel's hand moved toward the inside of his jacket.

Luca remained completely still.

Enzo looked around the hallway and smiled as though he had walked into a family breakfast instead of an interrogation.

"Why does everyone look like somebody died?"

His gaze landed on Vanessa.

Then on Dr. Harris.

Then on my bandaged hand.

"What happened here?"

Vanessa started toward him.

"Enzo-"

"Don't," Luca said.

She stopped.

Enzo's smile faded a fraction.

"Luca, what is this?"

"You tell me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Luca stepped aside.

"Then come to the dining room."

There was something almost ceremonial about the way he said it.

Ten minutes later, we sat at the same long table where the engagement dinner had taken place the night before.

The flowers were gone.

The champagne glasses had been cleared.

The six-thousand-dollar cake had been removed.

Only the people remained.

Luca at the head.

Enzo to his right.

Vanessa across from him.

Daniel standing near the wall.

Emma beside me.

Mrs. Carter near the doorway.

And me, a household server with a burned hand, sitting at a table where people like me were usually expected to pour the wine and disappear.

Enzo noticed.

"Why is the staff here?"

Luca's eyes went cold.

"Her name is Lily."

Enzo looked at me more carefully.

"Of course. Lily. Forgive me."

He smiled.

I did not.

Luca placed the printed security stills on the table.

One by one.

Michael entering the garage.

Vanessa following.

Nathan arriving.

Michael being forced into Enzo's sedan.

Enzo did not touch the photographs.

He looked at them and sighed.

"I wondered when Daniel's little insurance policy would surface."

Daniel's jaw tightened.

Luca leaned forward.

"Where is Michael?"

"Safe."

The word exploded through the room without volume.

Emma's fingers closed around mine.

Luca's voice lowered.

"Where?"

Enzo folded his hands.

"Before you decide I'm the villain in some cheap family melodrama, you should hear the part Michael never told you."

"I asked where he is."

"And I'm telling you why he's alive."

Enzo glanced at Vanessa.

She looked away.

"Michael discovered the Bellweather accounts," Enzo said. "Yes. Nathan helped move money. Yes. Vanessa helped create access. But Michael misunderstood what the money was for."

Luca said nothing.

Enzo continued.

"Your father left debts nobody knew about. Political debts. Business debts. Promises made to men who do not send invoices. Bellweather was how I paid them without creating panic inside the family companies."

"By stealing from the trust?"

"By protecting the trust."

"You kidnapped my brother."

"I prevented Michael from going public with records he didn't understand. If he had, half the people who depend on the Moretti businesses would have been ruined."

Vanessa laughed once.

Everyone looked at her.

"That's the story you're using?"

Enzo's head turned slowly.

The warmth vanished from his face.

Vanessa leaned back.

"Don't look at me like that. You promised this would be finished before the wedding."

Luca's eyes sharpened.

"Finished how?"

Vanessa realized what she had said.

Too late.

Enzo closed his eyes briefly.

"Vanessa."

"No," she snapped. "You don't get to stand there pretending you were protecting anyone. You wanted control. That's what this was always about."

Enzo's voice became quiet.

"Be careful."

She stood.

"Why? What are you going to do? Lock me in a clinic too?"

The room went completely still.

Luca rose slowly.

"Which clinic?"

Vanessa looked at him.

Fear returned to her face.

Enzo stood as well.

"This conversation is over."

Daniel moved in front of the doorway.

"Sit down."

Enzo looked at him almost sadly.

"Daniel, you've always been loyal to the wrong generation."

"Sit."

Enzo did.

Luca placed the Bellweather payment sheet on the table.

"A private rehabilitation center outside Milwaukee. Is Michael there?"

Enzo said nothing.

Vanessa did.

"He was."

Luca turned toward her.

"Was?"

"They moved him three days ago."

Enzo's face hardened.

"Vanessa."

She ignored him.

"Nathan panicked when Anna started sending things to Mara. He said the clinic wasn't safe anymore."

"Where did they move him?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. Nathan handled it."

Luca walked around the table and stopped beside her.

"And Anna?"

Vanessa's eyes filled with something that might have been shame.

"She got away."

"From whom?"

Vanessa looked at Enzo.

"From him."

Enzo slammed one palm against the table.

Emma jumped.

Daniel stepped forward.

Enzo pointed at Vanessa.

"You were paid because you could keep your nerve."

She laughed bitterly.

"I was paid because you needed someone Luca trusted enough to sign papers without reading every line."

Luca's face changed.

Not because he was surprised.

Because something in him had just become final.

"Get out," he told Enzo.

Enzo stared at him.

"Luca."

"You are no longer welcome in my home, my companies, or any property controlled by my family. Every account you touched is frozen. Every attorney you used is being investigated."

Enzo stood.

"You think you can erase me because a frightened girl and a dishonest fiancee tell you a story?"

Luca looked at me.

"Lily told me one thing. Vanessa burned her hand. Everything else came from your own records."

Enzo's gaze moved toward me.

The friendliness disappeared.

For the first time, I saw what lived underneath it.

Calculation.

"You," he said softly, "have caused a great deal of trouble for someone who serves dinner."

My skin went cold.

Before I could answer, Luca stepped between us.

"Say her name."

Enzo's eyes went to his nephew.

"Excuse me?"

"Her name is Lily Carter. If you're going to threaten her in my house, at least have the courage to use it."

Enzo smiled.

"Is that what this is now?"

Luca did not answer.

Enzo looked from him to me.

Understanding flickered across his face.

"Ah."

My stomach twisted.

"Don't," Luca warned.

Enzo picked up his coat.

"You always did inherit your father's weakness for rescuing people."

"And you inherited his weakness for mistaking fear for loyalty."

That wiped the smile away.

Enzo left under escort.

Vanessa remained at the table.

Nobody spoke until the front doors closed.

Then she said, "He'll kill me."

Luca looked at her.

"If you tell the truth, I can protect you."

"You don't know him."

"I know enough."

Vanessa's hands began shaking.

"No. You know the version of Enzo that comes to Sunday dinner."

She looked at Daniel.

"Ask him about Sophie. Ask him how many times Enzo used children, wives, parents. He doesn't threaten people. He builds cages out of the people they love."

I thought of Emma.

The photograph outside her school.

Luca must have thought the same thing.

"Where is Michael?"

Vanessa whispered, "Nathan moved him to a medical transport facility near the old freight yards. I don't know which building."

Daniel was already on his phone.

Then Vanessa added, "But Michael isn't the only one you should be looking for."

Luca turned.

"Anna?"

She nodded.

"She's back in Chicago."

"How do you know?"

"Because she called me yesterday."

The room froze.

Vanessa looked at the porcelain bride sitting on a sideboard where Luca had placed it after the party.

"She said if I hurt one more person before the wedding, she'd come back and finish what Michael started."

I stared at her.

"You burned me anyway."

Vanessa looked at my hand.

For the first time, she seemed unable to meet my eyes.

"Yes."

Her voice dropped.

"Because by then, I was more afraid of Enzo than I was of Anna."

Daniel lowered his phone.

"We found the transport company. One vehicle left the Milwaukee clinic three days ago. Destination: Chicago Medical Freight Center, Building C."

Luca stood.

"Get the cars."

Vanessa looked up sharply.

"Luca, wait."

"What?"

Her face went pale.

"If Nathan moved Michael without Enzo's permission, then Building C isn't a safe house."

A beat.

"It's where Nathan takes problems he plans to make disappear."

Luca did not rush toward the door.

He looked at Vanessa.

"How many people at Building C?"

"I don't know."

"Try harder."

"Nathan used the place for off-book medical transfers. Two drivers, sometimes three. A private nurse. Security changed depending on the patient."

Daniel said, "We can have eyes on it in twelve minutes."

"Do it. No entry until I get there."

Vanessa stood.

"You can't leave me here."

Luca looked at her.

"You are the safest person in this house right now."

"Enzo has people inside your staff."

Mrs. Carter's head came up sharply.

"On what basis do you say that?"

Vanessa looked around the dining room.

"Because somebody told him about the USB before he arrived. I never called him. Nathan is missing. My phone was taken. Yet Enzo walked in carrying flowers like he knew exactly what kind of emergency he was joining."

A cold wave moved through me.

Luca's gaze swept the room.

Not accusing.

Assessing.

For the first time, the mansion itself felt unsafe.

"Mrs. Carter," he said, "lock down the staff wing. Nobody leaves. Nobody is accused. Nobody is questioned until Daniel returns."

She nodded once.

Vanessa sat again.

"If you find Michael," she said, "don't assume he's going to thank you."

Luca stopped at the doorway.

"Why wouldn't he?"

She looked down at her hands.