Chapter 1 - The Doctor’s WarningDante slowly turned his head to look at Evans. The doctor’s face was grim, lit only by the pale blue glare of the city lights reflecting off the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“What did she say?” Dante asked, his voice dropping into a dangerously low register.
“She was drifting in and out of consciousness,” Evans replied, wiping his hands with a sterile towel. “She kept mumbling about a name. Not Silas Vane. Not Vane’s thugs.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed. “Whose?”
“Julian,” Evans said. “She kept whispering, ‘Julian said you wouldn't want me anymore.’ Over and over.”
The name hit Dante like a physical blow.
Julian Cavallaro.
His younger brother. The only person in the world Dante trusted with the books, the operations, and his back. Julian, who had spent the last six months shaking his head over dinner tables, offering quiet, brotherly sympathy about how “unfortunate” it was that Sophie had betrayed them.
“No,” Dante breathed, the word slipping out before he could catch it.
May you like
“You asked, I answered,” Evans said flatly. “You want the truth, Dante? You’re going to have to look in the mirror. Someone inside this family opened the back door for Vane. Someone gave him the ledger, framed the girl, and made sure she vanished into a nightmare so she could never tell you the truth.”
Without another word, Dante pushed past the doctor and strode toward the master bedroom.
