Page 62 of Ashes

“We’ll confront them and ask,” he says, determination flashing on his face. “But we need a plan.”

A part of me wants to rush out of here and find my father immediately. It’s something I would’ve done before.

But I know it wouldn’t work.

Victor’s right.

We need a plan.

And if our fathers are guilty, they need to pay.

“We need to confront them when they’re together,” Victor says. “We don’t want either of them to come up with something or lie and alter the story again. And we don’t want them to do something before we can ask all the important questions. But how do we get them together? My father always has his guards with him.”

“How about we host a party? At our house? We can say we’re celebrating something. A deal, maybe. You can pretend you struck one with Gianni.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“We need your most trusted guards with us,” I say. “And maybe we can figure out a way so that your father doesn’t bring all his guards with him.”

Victor nods.

We’ll come up with something.

We have to.

More than ever, I need to know the truth.

Chapter 27

IT TAKES ALL MY WILLPOWERto keep my face expressionless as my father and mother sit at the table across from me.

It took Victor and me some convincing, but my parents and his father finally agreed to come to our house to celebrate Victor’s success.

Victor found some men he trusted to guard the house.

He said something about some guy as the reason why those men would be loyal to him and not to his father, but I was too busy plotting how to get our fathers in a room together to understand what he was talking about.