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Other family members approach, coming in fast to stop this. Uncle Emil is making a fast track for me, and James steps in front of me, loudly announcing that I’m still tired and stressed and confused.
“Donny and Dario were still alive,” I all but scream as James grabs me around the shoulders, trying to drag me away. “They might still be. I could have gotten them back for you!
For all of us. I could have saved them. If he’d just let me—”
A clamor breaks out. There’s outrage as James and Uncle Emil try to usher me away, while the loved ones of Dario and Donny are desperate to know more, calling out for me, trying to get to me.
I’ve reached some of them. I know I have. I saw it in their faces.
I hear people screaming to let me go, to let me keep speaking. Glass shatters as someone hurls their wine at James. Someone pulls a gun, fires a shot into the ceiling. The room goes silent, only the music going on and on in the background.
“Let the princess speak,” the older man says, his pistol a heavy threat. The room is still.
Slowly, James and Uncle Emil let me go.
I straighten myself out, looking out into a crowd of confused and terrified people.
“You said Donny was alive,” I hear a woman say, pushing to the front of the crowd. His wife breaks through the swell of people. “Is that true, Contessa? Is it true?”
“It was,” I tell her. “I saw him. I don’t…I don’t know now.”
I can’t bear to give her false hope. I pull her into my arms.
“If there is anything I can do to get him back, I’ll try. I promise, I’ll try. Dario, too.”
She cries into me until one of her daughters has to pull her away.
No one dares to speak now. I have their attention. Maybe, even, a little of their support.
“My father thinks that I’m not fit to inherit his title. A few months ago, I would have happily agreed with him. I didn’t want it, and a part of me still doesn’t. But I’ve seen how he operates now. It’s not about family. I don’t think it’s even about money. Not for him. It’s about his pride. It’s about all the things he owns—me and you both. Your businesses, your loved ones, your own lives, if he decides to take them. I don’t want anyone else to die for my father’s ego.”
My throat clenches, but I force myself to speak through it.
“But I need your support, and your love. Because I cannot take him on alone—”
My plea is cut short.
The lights go out. We are plunged into a sudden, unexpected darkness.
My unadjusted eyes see only blackness, the music gone. Silence sweeps in like a cold breeze.
Somewhere in the distance, gunshots pepper the air.
25
Contessa
My heart beats in my mouth. He can’t do this. Not here. Not now. Chaos ripples through the scattering crowd.
Someone tries to grab me by the wrist. I don’t know if it’s a friend or foe. In a place like this, the shadows all feel like one and the same. I pull away, trying to keep a distance from James and my uncle, desperate to get to Salvatore before he can ruin the tentative progress that I’ve made here. Salvatore’s name is locked in my throat, perched just under my tongue. I know better than to scream for him, no matter how much I want to.
My eyes struggle to adjust to the sudden darkness. Phone lights come on, sending beams of white light across the walls and floors. Silhouettes spill toward the exits. I should be with everyone else making a break for it. If there was ever an opportunity, this is it. My one chance to get out of all this, the thin hope I’ve been hungering for day and night.
I don’t take it.
My heels snap against the polished floors, feet flying toward the sound of the gunshots.
The armed men from the balcony break into the corridor with me, like dogs baying for blood. I am reduced to a single dress in a sea of suits following the sound of trouble. The mob runs up against a locked door, moving to the next one—
