The Cyber Twins novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The House Rule

Nobody at the table moved.

Forty faces turned to me, and the three white screens still glowed with Jillian's nine rows.

Ottavio did not look at them anymore.

He looked at me, down the whole length of his table.

"Wynne," he said. "Is it true?"

I stood.

My chair scraped on the floor, and the sound was very loud.

"Yes," I said.

A captain by the door muttered a prayer.

Jillian let out a laugh, short and wet, and wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist.

"You see?" she said. "I told you."

"Nicolo."

Ottavio had not turned his head.

"On Sunday you told me, to my face, that you did not know who the Ghost was."

"I lied, Papà," Nico said.

The room made a sound.

"For how long?"

"Since the night I found out."

"And before?"

"Before, I didn't know," Nico said. "I swear it on Mamma."

His voice did not shake.

Ottavio drew a long breath through his nose.

"Then you know the rule."

"I know it."

"Whoever gets inside the family's wires does not leave this house."

He said it quietly, and every captain at the table heard it.

He lifted two fingers.

Two guards in dark suits came off the wall and started down the side of the table.

I did not run.

I stood where I was and watched them come, and I thought: I made this choice a year ago, one patch at a time.

Then Nico stepped in front of me.

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