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“There are a lot of ifs in that sentence,” Niccolo said drily.
“Yes, but if he thought that his presence could give away the game, it would be the height of recklessness to show up here. He could’ve said he got Covid and nobody would have batted an eye.”
“He didn’t see me in Florence that night,” Bianca insisted. “I only got a brief glance at him, so it wasn’t like he had a lot of time. And there was a woman standing between us – and he was looking at the other man in the room with him the entire time – ”
“You say that you only got a glance,” Niccolo interrupted, “but you’re one hundred percent SURE it was Aurelio?”
“Absolutely!”
“She’s already said ‘yes’ a dozen times,” Adriano barked. “Stop asking her.”
Niccolo put up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I’m sorry, Bianca. I don’t meant to badger you. I only ask because – if Aurelio actually did conspire with Mezzasalma – that means our own flesh and blood tried to kill us. And it’s likely that our uncle told him to do it.”
I looked at Niccolo in alarm. “You think Fausto is behind this?!”
“Aurelio’s not smart enough to pull this off. If anyone planned it all out, it was Fausto.
“Think about it:
“Fausto was Papa’s consigliere for 25 years. He lived in this very house and knew all its secrets – including the location of the escape tunnel out the back.
“And what about the old Sicilian servant woman, Filomena? I can’t prove it – I’ve gone back through the records and can’t find anything concrete – but Fausto could have easily hired her.”
Niccolo ticked off fingers on his hand. “Especially since she confessed to poisoning Papa…
“She told Alessandra about the tunnel…
“And she tried to shoot Dario the night the Turk broke in.
“As far as the Turk goes, Fausto was the one who set up the business meeting with him. If you’ll recall, Fausto later admitted that he and the Turk were already doing business together. It was probably Fausto who got the Turk to come after us in the first place – or at least promised him a cut of the profits if he took us out.
“Then you have Mezzasalma and the attempted hit on four of you at the hotel.
“Bianca saw Aurelio in Bautiste Agrella’s office just a few hours before it all went down. Aurelio was probably acting as a messenger for Fausto. He might have even set up the Agrellas – lulled them into a false sense of security – so Mezzasalma could come in and wipe them out.”
“But what if it was all just a coincidence?” Valentino asked. “What if Aurelio escaped being killed by Mezzasalma?”
“The Agrellas were our allies – or rather, our supposed allies,” Niccolo said tartly. “We were the ones who split Florence with them. We were the ones they betrayed by bribing politicians and policemen behind our backs. If Fausto or Aurelio had any contact with the Agrellas, they should have let us know. And they didn’t. Not to mention that if Aurelio had barely escaped being killed, don’t you think he would have mentioned it at the wedding? ‘Wow, guys, you’ll never believe what happened to me…’”
“So you think Fausto was behind the Agrellas trying to take back Florence from us?” Adriano asked.
“It makes sense.”
“But… that would mean Fausto’s the one who’s trying to turn the Five Families against us.”
Niccolo smiled bitterly. “Which makes even more sense.”
Part of Mezzasalma’s plan had been to turn the Cosa Nostra families of Rome, Venice, Sicily, Naples, and Milan against us.
After we got blamed for the Agrellas’ deaths, the Five Families had refused all contact with us –
And in a gigantic breach of centuries-old etiquette, they hadn’t sent any representatives to Adriano’s wedding.
It felt like the winds of war were blowing all around us, and now we knew why: our uncle had been conspiring against us all along.
“Should we confront Fausto and Aurelio?” I asked.
Niccolo laughed bitterly. “Why – so they can deny it? All they’ll say is, ‘No, that’s absurd, it’s all a big misunderstanding!’ And if we tell them what we know, we give away our one advantage: the fact that we’ve figured it out, and they don’t realize it yet.”
