He laughs softly. “You’re good.”
“I try.”
“No,” he says. “You’re very good. I see why Luca keeps you polished and visible.”
My jaw clenches.
Andrew, who stands to my right with a sling on one arm, tenses and hovers near his weapon.
“Hold,” I say.
Caterina’s smile thins. “I keep myself polished and visible.”
“You sound like your father.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
“I take it as one.”
The one who introduced himself as Victor Hale speaks for the first time. “You have no idea what your father is.”
Caterina turns to him.
“I have a better idea than most.”
“No,” he says. “You have the child’s version. The daughter’s version. The version he lets sit at board tables and think she earned the chair.”
There it is.
My hand curls into a fist.
Caterina only looks at him.
Then she says, “Is that why you came here? To insult me? I hope not. That would be disappointing.”
The cocky smile on Matthew Carr’s face drops a little.
She hit a nerve.
“You think this is a meeting,” he says.
“I know it is.”
“No,” he says. “This is courtesy.”
Caterina tilts her head. “Courtesy?”
He leans forward slightly. “We wanted you to understand before everything you built starts collapsing.”
Andrew looks at me.
I keep my gaze on Caterina.
She taps the pen once against the file folder.
“Oh?” she says softly.
