Page 146 of Double Trouble for the Mafia Prince

The sun has already dipped low behind the ridge, and the courtyard below is streaked with shadow.

She does not turn when I enter, but I can feel her awareness of me like a second heartbeat in the room.

I close the door.

She doesn’t speak.

I cross the floor slowly, until I’m close enough to see that she has not changed out of the dress she wore to dinner.

There’s a faint stain at the hem where the wine spilled on her during the panic.

Her hair is unpinned.

Her bare feet are planted evenly on the cold floor.

"You knew," I say, and it isn’t an accusation, only the beginning of something that has to be said out loud before it can destroy us in silence.

Her shoulders draw in slightly.

When she finally turns, her face is pale, but clear.

"I should have told you the moment I saw the car," she says, her voice low but not broken. "I should have said something the day I noticed the tail. The first day, it was nothing. A parked sedan. The second day it followed us. After that, I stayed near the school. I didn’t want to bring it back here."

My jaw tightens, but I say nothing.

Let her keep going.

I know she needs to get all of it out before I say what I came here to say.

"I didn’t think they would follow us into the house," she continues. "Not that far. Not that close. And then yesterday,the bug was found. Outside the girls’ playroom. It wasn’t just surveillance. It was a message."

I step closer.

She doesn’t retreat.

"I’ve been trying to believe he wouldn’t," she says, her eyes locked to mine now, wide and dry. "I’ve been trying to believe there was still a part of Rafa that remembered what loyalty meant. What family meant."

"You said it yourself," I answer. "There’s no one else it could be."

Her head dips, just slightly.

Then she nods.

"There’s more," she says. "When I confronted him. When I called. He answered like he had been waiting for me to put the pieces together. He didn’t admit everything, but he gave me enough. He helped Arditi disappear. He facilitated the early movements of Il Sangue Nero. He said he did it for us, to build something new under the weight of what had already failed."

My pulse doesn’t change.

I knew this was coming, but hearing it in her voice makes the fire settle deeper in my chest.

"He told me I had a choice," she adds. "To tell you. Or to help him finish it."

"Of course he did."

She nods again.

Slowly this time.

"He said there’s one more move left. One more consolidation. After that, everything would be revealed. He made it sound like I still had a place in it. If I chose to help him."