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13:58That was my mother's. She'd had two custom-made before she died.
14:01One stayed with my father. The other was locked in my jewelry box.
14:05Oh, Rose is here. There's an empty seat. Care to join us?
14:09Some embarrassed, some guilty.
14:11Compared to her, Lily really looks more like the mistress.
14:14I didn't raise my voice. Just looked at Lily, gently.
14:20That's a beautiful tiara you're wearing.
14:22This? Evan gifted it to me.
14:28That was my mother's keepsake.
14:31Her hand went still.
14:34You're wearing my mother's jewelry, sitting in my seat, using my china,
14:38and telling everyone here that you're the mistress of this estate.
14:41The room went silent.
14:43You're all decent people.
14:44Go home and ask your elders what happens to anyone who touches something that belonged to my mother.
14:48Several of the older women went pale instantly.
14:51They recalled everything.
14:53Lily's hands started to shake.
14:54Give me the tiara.
14:56She glanced at the door, hoping Evan would appear.
14:59No one was there.
15:00Give me the tiara.
15:03Slowly, she raised her hands and lifted the tiara off her head.
15:06When she placed it in my palm, her fingers were ice cold.
15:09I turned to the guests.
15:12My apologies for the poor hospitality.
15:14Lily doesn't know the code yet, and it was my oversight letting her host in my place.
15:19I'll arrange a proper dinner soon, to make it up to you all.
15:22Not one of them said a word.
15:24They rose one by one, excusing themselves, footsteps quick as if fleeing a fire.
15:29The room emptied.
15:30Only Lily remained, frozen in that chair.
15:33I walked to the door and, without turning around, said, Lily.
15:37What?
15:37Next time you sit in that chair, you won't be getting up from it again.
15:41Rosa!
15:41Who do you think you are?
15:42I left.
15:46Lily ran to Evan in tears.
15:49Three days later, Evan came at me for real.
15:52He brought two people with him this time.
15:54A well-known journalist and a board member from the Chamber of Commerce.
15:58He opened with a threat.
15:59Everyone in the city's already heard about you humiliating Lily.
16:02Hey, heir to the Moretti family, bullying a defenseless girl.
16:05If this story breaks, it'll destroy your family's reputation.
16:08Threatening me with a headline?
16:10Pressuring me with the family name?
16:14Then run it.
16:15All three of them froze.
16:17You can run it on the front page.
16:18I stood, walked over to him.
16:20But before you do, let me remind you of something.
16:23More than half of Shaw Bank's deposits come from Moretti.
16:27Evan's face went white.
16:28That afternoon, two things happened.
16:31First, the Moretti family issued a public statement.
16:34Effective immediately, all business with Shaw Bank was terminated and all funds withdrawn.
16:38Word spread through Grayport within hours.
16:40If the Morettis were pulling their money out, what was everyone else waiting for?
16:44By the next morning, there was a line out Shaw Bank's front door.
16:47All of them there to withdraw.
16:48Second, the Moretti group opened all supply contracts to public bidding.
16:52The Shaw group, flagged for financial irregularities, was suspended.
16:54In three days, most of the Shaw group's assets were gone.
16:58Richard, sick with panic, coughed up blood.
17:03He came to see me that same night.
17:05The estate gates didn't open for him.
17:08Security only relayed one message.
17:10Miss Rosa says you didn't stop it when you could have.
17:12It's too late now.
17:13His car sat outside for two hours before finally driving away.
17:17As for the news, never ran.
17:19The journalist burned his graft, then stayed sick and locked indoors for three days.
17:23Evan hadn't come back to the estate either.
17:25Miss Rosa, he's been holed up at the Shaw's ex-adurantial statement plotting with someone.
17:29Do you think he'll do something desperate?
17:30Yes.
17:31I'm waiting for him to act.
17:32However he acts, my people are already in place.
17:36That night, Cole came back with two pieces of news.
17:39Each one, enough to shake all of Greho.
17:42The first.
17:45Lily's surname was Vitale.
17:47She was the daughter of the Vitale family, the one the Morettas wiped out years ago.
17:51The day her family was purged, the Shaw's smuggled her out in secret,
17:55changed her name, and raised her as their own.
17:57She hadn't come into my estate to play the loving foster sister.
18:00She'd come for revenge.
18:02The second piece was worse.
18:03Her brother, Leo, was still alive, right here in the city, disguised as a teacher.
18:10The siblings met twice a month in secret, driven by Evan's driver.
18:15It's kind of scary.
18:16And three days ago, Evan had met Leo himself.
18:19Cole had followed every step.
18:22What were they planning?
18:23At my father's birthday gala, Leo would make his move.
18:26His people would slip in disguised as kitchen staff, then poison the wine before anyone noticed.
18:30A toast would become a death sentence.
18:31And Evan, as the estate's host, would inspect the kitchen at just the right time,
18:35covering their tracks while pretending to protect us.
18:37Once chaos broke out, the Mercer family from the knabing city would step in,
18:41and Evan's reward would be half of my family's territory.
18:43Bon appétit.
18:45Miss Rosa!
18:46What are we waiting for?
18:48Tell Dawn right now and round them all up!
18:50If we move now, Evan can claim he knew nothing, and pin it all on Lily and Leo.
18:55We'd only catch the driver and a few kitchen hands.
18:57He'd still be the respectable Shaw heir.
18:59Then what do we do?
19:02I walked to the closet and pulled open the bottom drawer.
19:05A set of black tactical gear, folded with precision.
19:08Ten years untouched.
19:09Not a speck of dust on it.
19:10Nina had kept it maintained.
19:12She'd always knew.
19:13Someday, I'd wear it again.
19:14I'm going to let them do it themselves.
19:16With every city guest watching, let them expose themselves.
19:20The next day, I returned to the Moretti estate to see my father alone.
19:25In the study, he looked at me.
19:28Something's coming at the birthday gala?
19:30There is.
19:31I met his eyes.
19:34I've prepared a gift for you.
19:36Just sit back and watch a drop of wine.
19:37My father studied me for a long moment.
19:39This man who'd spent half his life in bloodshed nodded.
19:42For the first time in ten years, he looked at me unguarded.
19:45It was trust.
19:47As I left the study, Cole was waiting under the walkway.
19:50Should we control Leo first?
19:52No.
19:53The kitchen staff?
19:54The driver?
19:55None of them.
19:56Not yet.
19:57I looked toward the sky.
19:59Whatever needs replacing, replace it quietly.
20:02Whoever needs to be in position, put them there in advance.
20:05Then, we wait for the show.
20:08Five days later, my father's 50th birthday, Bala, began.
20:11It was the most important social event in Grayport, political and business elite.
20:14Wives and daughters of every prominent family.
20:16Over a hundred guests filled the Moretti estate.
20:18The moment I walked in, every eye in the room snapped towards me.
20:21Because I was dressed in black.
20:23Black tactical gear.
20:25A holster at my whip, empty.
20:27The sun people went pale instantly.
20:28In my whole life, I only wore black for two occasions.
20:31Funerals and killing.
20:32The chamber president swapped his wine for tea.
20:36A young man started to laugh at my outfit, but in the next second, he was lucked by the person
20:41next to him.
20:42It's Dawn's birthday.
20:42Why are you dressing like that?
20:44There's a funeral coming up soon.
20:46I'm practicing for it.
20:48Who's funeral?
20:49You'll know.
20:50You're dressing like a bad omen.
20:52No wonder...
20:52Evan cut her off with a sharp grip on her arm.
20:56He was unusually tense.
20:57Checking his watch non-stop.
20:59Fingers drumming against the table.
21:01I noticed all of it.
21:02The gala was past its midpoint.
21:04The band still played.
21:05Father sat at the head table, smiling as he accepted well wishes.
21:08The glass in front of him remained full.
21:10Evan stood.
21:11He straightened his suit.
21:12How thoughtful.
21:13How decent.
21:13Guests who didn't know butter even shot him approving glasses.
21:16He walked toward the kitchen.
21:18Only his cuffs betrayed him, wrinkled where his hand had clanched too tight.
21:22I looked down at my tea and counted silently.
21:25Three, two, one.
21:28Cole.
21:29Now.
21:29Along the side door of the ballroom, twelve men slipped out without a sound.
21:33The music played on.
21:34No one noticed.
21:36I lifted my tea.
21:38Took a slow sip.
21:40The music stopped.
21:42Every guest turned at once.
21:45Inside the kitchen.
21:46The head chef had taken a sip of the poisoned wine and immediately clutched his stomach.
21:51Thrilling on the floor.
21:52The poison Leo's people had used had already been swapped for vitamins by Cole.
21:55The two kitchen staff members went pale.
21:57Turned to run.
21:58They didn't make it three steps.
22:02Before the enforcers slammed them face down onto the prep counter.
22:06Don't move.
22:07Then, at my engagement dinner, then the ballroom doors burst open.
22:11Leo, cornered and desperate, charged in with seven gunmen, straight toward father and me.
22:16The guns in their hands had been smuggled in by the Shaw family's own driver.
22:20Unfortunately for them, that driver had been bought off by Cole three days earlier.
22:24Every round in those guns had been swapped for blanks.
22:26One gunman raised his gun and fired.
22:28The shot rang out.
22:29No one fell.
22:30Screams erupted through the hall.
22:32Guests scrambling for cover.
22:33Leo's pupils contracted.
22:35His hand shot down toward the gun hidden in his boot.
22:38He never got a chance to touch that gun.
22:42He aimed it straight at my father.
22:44That's when a shot cracked through the room.
22:46The gun flew out of Leo's grip.
22:48His hand became a mangled mess.
22:50He screamed and dropped to his knees.
22:52Everyone in the room turned.
22:53I stood at the table, smoke still curling from the barrel of my gun.
22:57It had been ten years.
22:58That shot landed as steady as if I'd never put the gun down at all.
23:02I looked at father.
23:04This is my gift for you.
23:06The enforcers closed in.
23:08Gunmen were forced to the ground one by one.
23:11Leo was dragged to the center of the ballroom floor.
23:13That's when Lily lunged from her seat, throwing herself down beside Leo, screaming.
23:18The room erupted into chaos.
23:22Evan was hauled out of the kitchen by the enforcers, forced onto his knees.
23:25His face had gone bloodless.
23:27He shook his head wildly.
23:28Dawn, they tricked me.
23:29I didn't know anything about this.
23:30Lily whipped her head toward him, tears streaming down her face.
23:33Tricked you?
23:35You went to see Leo yourself.
23:37You schemed for half the Morelli territory.
23:39And now you're purely innocent?
23:41Shut up!
23:42I will not!
23:43You told me that once it was done, you'd divorce Rosa and marry me!
23:46Silence swallowed the room whole.
23:48Every guest had just heard them tear into each other.
23:50No need to question them.
23:51They confessed it all.
23:52He walked over to Evan, looked down at him, and said,
23:55You were married to my only daughter, but you tried to kill me?
23:59Then he turned.
24:00I'll let Rosa handle them.
24:02Dead silence again.
24:04No one dared breathe.
24:05I walked over, crouched down, and met Evan's ashten face at eye level.
24:09Evan, do you remember now?
24:11What I did when I was thirteen?
24:12His people shrunk.
24:14I smiled.
24:15You can guess.
24:17At twenty-eight, am I crueler than I once was, or have I gone soft?
24:20His legs gave out.
24:21He collapsed to the floor.
24:23A strange sound rose from his throat.
24:25Not crying.
24:26Not screaming.
24:27Something closer to the whipper of an animal in its final moments.
24:30Something closer to the whipper of an animal in its final moments.
24:33Exactly like the sound I heard at thirteen when I walked into the mistress' room.
24:37Three days later, rain fell over Grayport.
24:40The Moretti family's decisions spread through the city.
24:43Evan, who conspired against Don Moretti, would be shot.
24:45Leo and Lily, the last remnants of the Vitalla family, would hang.
24:49The night before, Lily had cried until dawn, calling Evan over and over.
24:53In the next cell, Evan heard every word of it.
24:56He never answered once.
24:57The Shaw family's assets were seized.
24:59The family was expelled from Grayport.
25:01Richard's hair turned white overnight.
25:03As they dragged him away, he said again and again,
25:06No one spoke up for him.
25:08Cole and the enforcers swept the remaining Vitari loyalists clean within three days.
25:11Efficient and merciless.
25:13My father met me alone in the study.
25:14He stood at the window, watching the rain, his back to me.
25:18Any regrets?
25:19About what?
25:20These ten years.
25:22Your mother wanted you to live a good life.
25:24You tried to change for ten years.
25:25And this is what had earned you?
25:26A house full of monsters.
25:28No regrets.
25:29Mother asked me to try, so I tried.
25:31They just weren't worth it.
25:33My father went quiet for a moment.
25:35Then he reached out and rested his hand gently on my shoulder.
25:39For ten years, my father had loved and feared me in equal measure.
25:42This was the first time he'd reached for me first.
25:45You don't need to try anymore.
25:47Live however you want to live.
25:52I stepped out of the study.
25:54The rain was still coming down.
25:56Cole stood beneath the walkway, his shoulder soaked through.
25:59The eaves were narrow, and he'd given the dry side to whoever passed through, as always.
26:03That was how he'd always been.
26:04When he saw me, he moved to bow.
26:06Exactly the same way he had, the first time we met.
26:09I reached out and pulled him back up.
26:11He froze.
26:11I'd never touched him before.
26:12Let's go home.
26:13He fell in three steps behind me, same as always.
26:18You can walk closer.
26:19He hesitated, then closed the distance.
26:21Two steps forward.
26:22The rain was heavy.
26:23Under the eels, there was just enough room for two people to walk side by side.
26:26Later, a new rumor about me made its way through Greyhill.
26:29Rosa Moretti.
26:30Ruthless.
26:30Decisive.
26:31Not someone to cross.
26:32But this time, the story carried one more line.
26:34Her companion Cole has her personally for years.
26:36He never left her side, not even a day.
26:37Some said it was loyalty.
26:39Others said it was something more.
26:40No one dared to ask.
26:41For me, there was no need to ask.
26:43The answer lay in that single step of distance.
26:46Neither too close, nor too far.
26:47Just right.
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