Page 26

"Explain, Diana," Malin growled, approaching her slowly. Many years ago, he had an affair with. Mrs. Santangelo, and her violent death hit him hard because they stayed friends. He would never admit it out loud, but she was the only woman who ever got close to him.

"When the work on the Starlight building started, two men came to our house," Diana began, briefly looking at her sister, who sobbed silently.

"I overheard their conversation about having the perfect plan to take money from you, but Dad refused.

They came back a few weeks later with another proposition. "

She inhaled deeply, her chin quivering. "They claimed that bodies were buried in the concrete floor in the underground parking lot, and it was my dad's responsibility because he signed the paperwork.

" Her hands trembled, and her feet bounced nervously while I watched her face, catching every change in her demeanor.

My gut told me she was telling the truth, but this couldn't be the whole story.

"Your father could've called us," Dorian stated the obvious, and I nodded in agreement. But she shook her head resolutely.

"You rejected the alliance to marry me or my sister," she said, glancing at trembling Matilda. "Dad didn't want to screw you but decided to handle it by himself and failed miserably."

"We didn't reject the alliance, Diana," I corrected, crouching before her. "I refused to marry you because I'm twice your age. And Matilda is barely an adult."

"I wouldn't have taken away your freedom, Zyon," she spat, anger crossing her features. "But my mother would've been alive, and my sister would've been a happy, seventeen-year-old girl finishing high school. Not this empty vessel who barely sleeps and eats."

"Diana," I whispered, attempting to touch her cheek, but she flinched away.

"Don't Diana me! You condemned my family to this. You and my father's ego and frivolous decisions!"

Rising to my feet, I turned to my brothers, who watched the scene silently. Neither showed any emotions, but I knew we thought the same thing. It had gone too far. We had to finish this before it would completely get out of hand.

"You said that your families were forced to conspire," Dorian said out of the blue. "What families are we talking about?"

"Mine," she whispered, staring to the floor. “Santino, Baricelli, Gravaldis, and Torinnella.”

"Italian shareholders?" Malin rumbled, nodding at two boys who acted invisible during our conversation with Diana. They were Enzo Baricelli and Nico Gravaldis.

"How were your parents forced to cooperate?" I asked, but Malin answered before they could take a shaky breath .

"Matteo Baricelli, the oldest son, had a motorcycle accident around the time the work started on Starlight," he uttered, and Enzo slightly nodded, sweating profusely. "He died after falling off a cliff in Hawaii."

"That could really be an accident," Dorian mused, but Malin only shrugged, directing his attention to young Gravaldis.

"Nico's sister, Tessa, disappeared for two weeks without explanation," he continued, and Nico's face twisted with pain. "When they found her, she was overdosed and almost dead. Since then, she hasn’t left the psychiatric facility in Washington."

"Maybe she just wanted to try something new, and it got out of hand," Dorian said, trying to find reason behind it, but even a blind person could see it wasn't a coincidence.

"Italians have suffered weird accidents since the Holding started working on the projects for you," Enzo whispered, gulping anxiously when all three of us looked at him.

"When we refused to cooperate, someone close to us died or got hurt badly.

" He sighed, shaking his head sadly. "My mom is the daughter of Carmelo Donatelli.

She has first-hand information, and she said that heads of the clans have had some disputes between them.

They don't pay attention to the construction company that serves as a link between Italians and Americans because they have bigger problems."

The name Chester Kellerman popped up in my mind, and I clenched my palm into a tight fist. His involvement with Italians suddenly made much more sense.

If he worked for someone with ambitions to take over one or all Five Families, the situation was more complicated than I thought.

And my goddess was in the center of it, not knowing what kind of danger crept behind her back.

"Let them go," I ordered, staring at the opposite wall but not really looking at it. My mind was elsewhere, and while I waited for my brothers to free our prisoners, I considered some scenarios, finding the most probable one.

"What do you think?" Dorian enquired when we were alone, and I turned to them.

"Donald Stern told me that Chester Kellerman persuaded the shareholders to participate in this massive fraud," I disclosed, watching my brothers exchange quick, surprised glances.

"I think Kellerman is helping someone very powerful to take over the businesses Italians have under their control by acting like he works for them.”

Malin's brows shot up while Dorian blinked in confusion .

"Think about it," I said, hiding my hands in my pants pocket and walking around them in circles.

"He has access and connections to influential people, thanks to his previous work.

Someone notices his skill of persuasion and decides to use it.

In three years, he invisibly plots the conflict between us, Italians, and American businessmen and forces us into a war.

" I stopped in the middle of the room, noticing the silver pin on the ground under Matilda's chair.

I picked it up, admiring the diamond rose for a second.

"What's in it for him?" Dorian stepped closer and took the pin from me.

"Money," I responded matter-of-factly, sure about Chester's intentions. "We know how much he lost in our casinos over the past three years. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where did he get that money from?"

My question went unanswered, yet I knew they understood our next move.

"I'll check everything about him since the Starlight project started," Malin said, and I nodded, looking at Dorian.

"I'll dig out every person he spoke with over the past three years," he claimed, and I smirked, knowing it was only a matter of time until we discovered who he was in bed with.

"Assign our best hackers and trackers to this," I ordered, walking out of the tiny, stinky place.

"Jamal!" I shouted, and he exited the room with a wicked grin, shifting his face into a sinister grimace.

"Let the kids go with a warning!" Then I turned to my brothers, putting all seriousness into my next words.

"We must uncover the name and face of our enemy. "

"Of course." Dorian slammed my shoulder hard, grinning. "And you, brother, enjoy your date."

"Yeah," Malin joined in, hitting my other shoulder. "Just don't fuck it up more than it already is."

"Inspirational," I groaned, shaking their hands off of me and strolling to my car.

Their remarks were getting on my nerves, mostly because they were right.

This innocent game I started quickly escalated, and the chaos with our projects blocked me from disclosing the stalker's identity to Valeria.

I didn't want to expose her to danger, but I couldn't be without her either.

So, all I could do was wear the mask and hope she wouldn't find out about me and hate me forever.