Whatever punishment she’s about to dole out, I’ll accept it with my shoulders back and my chin held high.

“Fortunately for you, I’ve already found a solution that I find far more appealing.”

Her gaze shifts over my right shoulder, and I realize for the first time since arriving in the room that I’m not alone with my grandmother. I look back and feel dread constrict my chest.

Frédéric Mercier has come to join us in Italy.

Chapter Twenty-One

Emmett

It’s not long after Lainey leaves before Moretti comes back for me. I’ve been out on the veranda, checking emails on my phone, confirming my travel itinerary for tomorrow. He clears his throat behind me.

“Sir, your presence has been requested in the library.”

When I don’t immediately hop to it, he adds, “Mr. Mercier seems rather impatient.”

Well then, we don’t want to keep him waiting.

If Papa has flown all the way to Italy and requested an audience with me, I have no doubt it’s for something important. I know it doesn’t pertain to work. My phone would have been lighting up with calls if there was an emergency at GHV, some issue with the Leclerc takeover, perhaps, but it hasn’t, which means this is personal.

My mind immediately jumps to Alexander. I haven’t heard from him since I’ve been in Italy, which isn’t unusual for us—we aren’t the type to talk every day—but there have been incidents in the past, issues with drugs and alcohol. I’ve had a few calls in the middle of the night, friends worried for him. It hasn’t happened in years, and I thought those days might be behind us, but I’m already following Moretti, letting him lead me toward the library while I run through the proper steps in my mind.

I’m so deep down the wormhole of worry over Alexander that I don’t think to consider other possibilities. It’s why I’m caught off guard when I arrive in the dimly lit library to find that my father isn’t alone. It hadn’t even occurred to me that there would be others here waiting for me.

I stop dead in my tracks, only two steps into the room as I survey the three of them: my father, Fay Davenport, and Lainey.

My hackles immediately go up.

“What is this?”

Ignoring my question, my father dismisses Moretti with a curt nod. “Thank you, that will be all.”

The door creaks shut behind me, and an ominous silence fills the room.

I stay where I am, staring down my father, trying to ascertain what could possibly be happening. My father stands confidently before me wearing a terse expression, obviously leading the charge. On the couch behind him, Fay Davenport could be a queen with her posture so severely perfect and her gaze so fiercely omnipotent. Lainey sits next to her, sandwiched between her grandmother’s hip and the arm of the couch. Her attention is down on her hands.

Uneasiness fills me.

“It’s obvious I’m the last to know something, so what is it? Why are we all here?”