"All set." I had my assistant bring the document over and handed it to him. The operational transfer papers — every front business, every territorial holding, every laundered revenue stream the Montecarlo name controlled, signed over in trust for a child who carried not a single drop of Montecarlo blood. "Carina's still too young, so as her father, you'll sign on her behalf and hold it in trust until she's of age."
Dante couldn't grab the pen fast enough. He signed without reading a single line.
I glanced at the signature, then passed the document to my assistant. "Get this to the Consigliere immediately. The agreement takes effect now."
At those words, Serafina couldn't contain herself. She laughed out loud.
I raised an eyebrow. "Signorina Conti, what's so funny?"
She pressed two fingers to the hollow of her throat, but the mockery swimming in her eyes was barely contained. She might as well have stamped the word idiot across my forehead.
"Oh, nothing. I just realized that some people think they're so clever, when really they're dumber than livestock. Standing at the edge of their own grave, grinning like fools. That level of stupid? They deserve whatever's coming. Don't you agree?"
I nodded and smiled right along with her. "You're absolutely right. That kind of stupid deserves exactly what it gets."
Dante let out a scoff. He wasn't even pretending anymore. He strode onto the stage and picked up the microphone, and the room quieted the way rooms do when someone steps into a space they haven't earned — not with silence born of respect, but with the morbid curiosity of people watching a man walk toward something he doesn't see coming.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today is my daughter's birthday, but I have something deeply painful to announce."
I stood below the stage, watching at my leisure as he squeezed out two pathetic tears. My father's signet ring sat heavy on my right hand. I turned it slowly.
The guests took the bait. Murmurs rippled through the crowd, one voice after another pressing him to go on.
Only then did he deliver his grand finale, face twisted with rehearsed anguish.