Chapter 5 - Patricia Finally Chooses a Side
Vincent Romano called a family council for Friday night.
He thought he had called it.
That was the first part of Serena’s plan.
Patricia phoned him at noon, crying just enough to sound frightened and ashamed.
She told him Serena had finally realized Dante could not protect her.
She said Dante and Julian were fighting.
She said Arthur was threatening to expose the marriage contract.
Then she told Vincent the sentence he most wanted to hear.
“Come get your daughter.”
Dante listened from across the room.
When Patricia hung up, he said, “You are very good at that.”
Patricia looked at him.
“I have been married to Vincent for thirty-three years.”
It was not pride.
It sounded like a diagnosis.
Serena watched her mother place the phone down.
“Why now?”
Patricia did not pretend not to understand.
“Why am I helping?”
“Yes.”
Patricia sat.
“Because last night your father heard you say you would die with your husband and his first response was not fear for you.”
Serena looked away.
“He asked whether you had access to Dante’s emergency keys.”
Silence.
Patricia’s voice cracked.
“That was the moment I finally understood that I had spent years helping a man who measured love by usefulness.”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“I helped him do that to you.”
“Yes.”
Patricia nodded.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
Serena breathed slowly.
“Thank you for saying it.”
Not forgiveness.
But not nothing.
The family council would take place at the Romano lake house, where Vincent preferred to settle disputes because there were no neighbors close enough to hear raised voices and no hotel cameras to remember who entered.
Twenty-three people were invited.
Romano captains.
Two union intermediaries.
Julian, supposedly ready to turn on Dante.
Patricia.
Serena.
Dante was not invited.
He intended to attend anyway.
Serena objected.
“If you walk in at the beginning, Dad will shut down.”
“He planned my murder.”
“I noticed.”
“I’m not waiting outside while you sit in a room with him.”
Serena folded her arms.
“There. That thing.”
“What thing?”
“You ask what I want until you become afraid. Then suddenly you decide.”
Dante stared.
She was right.
He hated that.
Serena continued.
“I am not asking to go alone. Arthur will be there as counsel. Patricia will be there. Julian will be there. Investigators will have the recordings if anything happens.”
“You trust Julian?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I trust that he wants to undo what he did.”
“That is not the same.”
“I know.”
Dante looked at her for a long moment.
“What do you need from me?”
“Be close enough to come if I call. Far enough away that my father talks.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Fine.”
Serena smiled slightly.
“You said that like a man swallowing glass.”
“I am growing.”
“Painfully.”
At seven that evening, Serena entered the Romano lake house wearing a dark blue dress and no wedding ring.
Vincent noticed immediately.
His smile widened.
“My girl.”
Serena let him hug her.
She felt nothing.
That frightened her more than anger would have.
Julian stood near the fireplace.
He did not meet her eyes.
Patricia poured wine she did not drink.
Arthur sat at the far end of the long table with a legal folder in front of him.
Vincent looked around the room.
“Dante?”
Serena sat.
“Not coming.”
Vincent smiled.
“Smartest decision he’s made.”
The room laughed politely.
Serena looked at every face.
Some men had known her since childhood.
Some had danced at her wedding.
Some had known her father intended to make her a widow and had said nothing.
That hurt.
Good.
Pain was information now.
Vincent began talking about the failed docks operation as if it had been a misunderstanding between contractors.
Julian’s jaw tightened.
Serena waited.
Vincent turned toward her.
“You will stay here until Arthur fixes the corporate transfer.”
“No.”
The room quieted.
Vincent smiled.
“You’re upset.”
“No.”
“You’ve been through a shock.”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
Serena looked at him.
“I am not staying here. I am not transferring anything. And I am not pretending you tried to save me.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Your husband is finished.”
Serena felt twenty-three people lean into the silence.
“My husband was standing outside the sunroom when Mom told me the hit was paid for.”
Nobody moved.
Patricia set down her wineglass.
Vincent looked at his wife.
Then back at Serena.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Serena reached into her purse and placed the old voice recorder on the table.
“Would you like to hear yourself?”
The first recording played.
Vincent telling Esposito to use Julian’s grief.
The second.
Vincent laughing about Serena coming home once she was frightened enough.
The third was worse.
It was only four days old.
Esposito asked what happened if Serena chose Dante.
Vincent replied:
“Then she chose the wrong family.”
Silence spread across the table.
One captain looked down.
Another slowly removed his hand from the chair in front of him.
Vincent’s face changed.
He had built his authority on the belief that private cruelty remained private.
Serena watched that belief die in public.
Then Vincent made the mistake she had been waiting for.
He pointed at Patricia.
“You recorded me?”
Patricia looked at him.
“For years.”
“You stupid woman.”
His hand lifted.
Serena stood.
Julian moved first.
He caught Vincent’s wrist before it reached Patricia’s face.
The entire room froze.
Vincent stared at him.
“You.”
Julian’s voice shook.
“You lied about my father.”
Vincent laughed.
“And you believed me because you wanted to.”
Julian flinched.
The cruelty was precise because it was partly true.
Serena stepped between them.
“No one is pretending Julian is innocent.”
She looked around the room.
“But neither are you.”
A door opened behind Vincent.
Dante entered.
Not with ten gunmen.
With Carlo DeLuca and two attorneys.
Vincent’s face went blank.
Dante looked at Serena first.
She nodded.
Only then did he look at Vincent.
“You wanted a family council.”
May you like
Dante pulled out a chair.
“So let’s finally have one.”
