Chapter 18: Bride Upgrade

Gianna's POV

I stared at the phone in my hand.

"Whose is this?" I said, though I knew.

"Stefano's." Lidia's teeth were chattering. "He left his jacket on the chair when you started your speech. Everyone was looking at you."

"Where is the guard?"

"Outside the powder room door. I told him I was going to be sick."

"Lidia."

"He will notice in twenty minutes. Maybe less."

She leaned against the sink.

"I know his code," she said. "He made me set it up. It is my birthday."

I unlocked it with her numbers.

The first thing on the screen was a thread with his lawyer.

I scrolled up.

Two weeks ago, Stefano had written: Ricci's payment cleared. Chicago's debt keeps paying. Nobody has asked a single question in five years.

The lawyer had answered: And the Landolfi girl?

Stefano: She can talk all she likes. She cannot prove a thing, and her father will back me.

Under it was a photograph of a sheet of paper.

I knew the signature at the bottom before I read a word.

Salvatore Landolfi had signed a statement five years ago.

It said he had seen Stefano Sartori carry a man out of the boathouse loft with his own arms.

My father's hand had not even shaken.

"That is the paper," I whispered.

"There is more," Lidia said. Her voice had gone thin. "Keep going. Please. I want you to see it."

"Why?"

"Because I need someone else to see it, or I will say I imagined it."

I scrolled down to a thread called Cousin.

It was dated three days before the engagement dinner.

Cousin: Are you sure about the sister? She is so sweet.

Stefano: She is a way in. Her father wants his bloodline on the treaty and I want the harbor seat.

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