“We never decided what it meant for everything to blow over.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“If anyone should be worrying, it’s me.”

“What the fuck do you want out of me? You think I don’t have enough to deal with? Agosti’s undercutting me every chance he gets. I’m finding shit’s been going on right under my nose my whole damn life, and I’ve been trailing Dad around like a dimwitted fucknut, getting fed information in little bite-sized nuggets. You have no idea what’s landed in my fucking lap. Now you want me to tell you when you can pick your head up? Never, okay? How about never?”

How long will you keep Dario in that cell before you kill him?

I don’t ask him. He won’t answer. Our collaboration is over now that Massimo has all the power in our relationship and all the motivation in the world to expand it over a kingdom.

“Everyone’s talking about the girls he stole.” I tent my hands on the desk, leaning forward.

“Not your problem.”

“What if they’re alive?”

“Excuse me? Do you know something I don’t?”

So, Dario didn’t utter a word about St. Easy when the blood ran over his shirt. He’d never undo his life’s work over a little pain.

“If you tell me,” Massimo says, “you can save everyone a lot of trouble.”

Has the floor opened up under me? Am I spinning through space, grasping for something to break my fall? Have I had the ability to end Dario’s suffering this entire time?

I can bargain with St. Easy.

Can’t I?

No. I can’t. I’ll lose Dario and my soul at the same time.

“I would if I could,” I lie. “He never told me anything specific. He was always afraid I’d end up back here.”

“He must have opened the right fortune cookie, because here you are.”

“Dario will let you bleed him to death before he tells you anything. He’ll never break. Never. Not for you.”

“Sarah. I know you care about him.”

“It’s not that.”

“You’ll get over it. All the feelings… they’ll go away…”

I slam my fist onto the desk. “It’s not that! Sergio’s still trying to find a way into that chair. Dad put him in charge while you were out looking for me, but you’re the legal successor. You both have a valid claim and he’s not going anywhere.”

“I know how to deal with a power vacuum.”

God save us all from a man who thinks he can control a situation he’s never encountered before. Massimo’s a lost little boy halfway around the turn where he realizes his shortcut got him lost.

Men sometimes need to be followed to their own minds.

Grandma’s little sayings about men haven’t been very helpful until now. I can beg and plead to see my husband. I can reason my way there. I can corner him into having no choice but letting me down there. But Massimo will never let me see him unless he thinks it’s his idea.