Gall

rackled over the line from Zurich. "Complete isolat

e the first real thing I'd said in years. I

Luca family's power, and I was just another one of its expensive decorations. Rage, col

him every morning. Smashed a

The glass shattered as I ripped the

et he'd wrap aroun

at made him look like a god of the u

to the curb like common garbage. It was a desecration of

dels. I called a moving company and told them to take everything to my

inally walked through the door on the second evening,

ing his eyes. He moved to embrace me, to pu

perfume that wasn't mine. It wa

ushing against his

easily. It

want to soothe him. Now, it just looked like a part of the act.

. It was a gift for a stranger, a placeholder wife. A testament to how little he saw me

wn eyes hard. "I wan

n the air betwee

s. It's a critical time for the family." He was p

e, but a second one, a burner. The screen li

my forehead-a sterile, dismissive gesture-and walked ou

The second phone had slipped from his coat pocket and l

e from S

He's asking for

oom, my stomach clenching violently. I retched into the t

ed in the back of my mind. A thought born of mis

e heir to the De Luca family. An heir for a

e hospital. The doctor's face was kind

d, pointing to a tiny, flickering speck