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“I understand you’re confused, Ms. Rowe, I truly do,” Stephen Panagos says. “And I can’t blame you. Perhaps I can shed some light on the situation that will make you feel better.”
“You tried to kill me,” I whisper and clasp Dad’s forearm. “Daddy, he tried to kill me. What’s going on?”
“Honey, you’re confused,” Daddy says and looks at Stephen awkwardly. “Do you want to explain?”
“No,” I say, recoiling, but Daddy doesn’t let me go. “I don’t—I can’t—”
“Brice,” Stephen says like he’s talking to a wild animal on the verge of attacking. “What happened back in Dallas is regrettable. That isnothow I wanted to handle business between your father and me. The truth is that hit was never meant for you at all, but for your future husband.”
I let that sink in but for some reason my body rebels against it, like my very bones are screaming outliar, liar, liar, liar!I don’t know how Daddy can’t hear my heart hammering against my ribs and I’m afraid I might hyperventilate if I try to speak. They’re watching me and I need to say something but what can I say?Yes, okay, you’re totally not a murdering psychopath, it’s fine you just meant to kill Carmine, not me, ha-ha, cool.
I manage a weak little nod and Stephen seems to accept that.
“Carmine Scavo’s the real problem here,” Daddy says brightly. “Tell her, Stephen.”
“Carmine’s the problem,” Stephen agrees. “You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Brice, but trust me. Carmine was what I wanted from the start. He’s the one behind all of this.”
“Sweetie, this might be hard to hear, or maybe you’ll be excited, I don’t know, but you need to hear it.” He faces me grimly. “Carmine Scavo is the one that got me thrown in jail,” Daddy says and I have to stare at him like he sprouted a second head and that head’s speaking in Portuguese.
“One revelation at a time, Perry,” Stephen says and my head’s a twisted wreck. The head of the Panagos family leans forward and studies me, and I swear I can see my death reflected back in his eyes. He may be saying that I wasn’t his original target, but that’s bullshit, it’s just a lie to make my father go along with this charade. But what’s going on here anyway? What’s the point of this and why is my father playing along like this mobster isn’t going to cut his throat the first chance he gets, too?
“Right, let’s back up.” Daddy takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Okay, honey. You know that Daddy got involved in a crypto coin project, right?”
“Yes,” I say and the word comes out like a meek little squawk.
“Things were going well. We were growing. But the project hit a few snags and needed some more funding, so I took out a loan from the company, all very much above board.” He clears his throat and glances at Stephen. “Mostly above board. Anyway, everything was going well, I had it under control, until suddenly someone leaked information about that loan to the SEC, who forwarded it to the FBI, and then suddenly I’m under investigation and they’re seizing all my computer equipment, and the coin’s value is crashing, and all the money’s evaporating—” Daddy has to stop, he’s talking so fast and his face is bright red. A part of me is afraid he might have a heart attack and another part of me wants it to happen.
“I hired some people,” Stephen says, picking up where Daddy leaves off. “Expensive people. Very talented people. I set them about finding outexactlywhat happened with your father’s crypto project. It seemed so promising and so well managed and it toppled so fast. Something felt wrong to me. For a long time, they couldn’t find anything, until the day before our unfortunate incident.”
I clear my throat and look down at my feet. I feel both men staring at me and I can’t bring myself to raise my chin to meet their gazes. I’m only partially following along so far and I wish they’d stop talking, I wish I’d never come into this hotel at all, I wish I could scream my head off and make Angelo come and pull me away—but I’m powerless to move, not with Daddy looking at me like the world depends on what they’re about to say.
Because to him, that might be true. His world might really hang in the balance.
This is my father. My Daddy. He took care of me when my mother died. He was always there for me, always around, always coaching me and helping me and doing his best to help me get through life as unscathed as possible. I love him more than anyone else in the family and I don’t know what I’m going to do because this is all pure madness.
“What did you find?” I manage to croak.
That seems to delight Stephen. He says, “One of my people, a rather unconventional private investigator I’d rather not name, found some files on a server belonging to Carmine Scavo.”
My mouth opens and my jaw works, but nothing comes out. Daddy leans closer to me. “Your future husband, sweetie. He’s been behind this the whole time.”
“Carmine Scavo is the man that leaked the documents that brought your father down,” Stephen says and I feel like I’m back in the car in Texas and there are guns pointed at my face, and everything is sound and fury and chaos again. “Carmine is the one that took down your father. He’s been masterminding this from the beginning, working you and your grandfather around like puppets, and I want to find out why. I suppose I shouldn’t have tried to kill him, but can you blame me? He’s the reason my money is gone.”
I feel sick. Carmine wouldn’t do that. Would he do that? Could this whole thing have been a game from the start? I always assumed Carmine saw an opportunity and took it—but could he be so devious, so evil and so low that he’d manufacture my family’s downfall just to get his dirty hands on me?
I recoil away from Daddy. Both men stare at me: Daddy with a strange desperation like he needs for me to believe this more than anything in the world and Stephen with a strange amusement.
“That can’t be true,” I say, finally finding my voice. “Carmine ratted out Daddy? He wouldn’t do that. He’s in the—” I stop myself there, but the men know what I mean.
Stephen laughs. “You think honor means a damn thing to a man like Carmine? He’d rat on his own mother if it meant making his family stronger. That man is clever and he’s working a few steps ahead, and I think it was always his intention to swoop in and save Rowe Oil the moment its stock began to plunge. Imagine his delight when the entire family was nearly wiped out because of your father’s aggressive and unconventional investment style.”
“You stole all our money,” I say, staring at Daddy. “You did that.”
“But it was working,” he says on the edge of pleading. “It would’ve worked if it weren’t for Carmine. He found out that I was weak and he destroyed me, all because he wants the damn company. All because—”
But I don’t hear him anymore. He keeps talking but it’s like I’ve fallen down into a deep well and I’m staring out from the bottom. My ears feel like they’re filled with cotton balls and a whooshing sound blows through my head.
I pull my arm from Daddy and stand, stumbling away. Both men watch me, but they don’t follow. I lean against the wall and hold myself there, breathing hard, feeling like I might heave my breakfast onto the tile floor and only barely keep myself together.
