I curled my lips into something that wasn't quite a smile. "I deposit a million dollars into the family account every year. Since Carina was born, that's five million. You've spent it all?"
Dante didn't so much as flinch. "Getting Carina into that academy cost a fortune in connections. You know how it is. The tutors there are all well-connected people. Families with ties to every Capo on the Eastern Seaboard. You can't afford to offend a single one of them."
"Including Serafina Conti?"
His expression seized up. Before he could respond, Carina piped up out of nowhere. "Well, duh! Carina's mommy is pretty and amazing, so obviously she gets the biggest presents."
She raised her little pinky finger and pointed it straight at my nose, chin tilted high like she was scolding a disobedient dog.
"You have to give Carina's mommy presents, and you have to buy her purses, and a car, and a house. You're just our maid and our ATM. All your money belongs to Carina's mommy. And if you don't listen, I'll push you into the street and let a car run you over..."
"Carina!" Dante's voice cracked sharp, but the panic on his face was impossible to hide.
He glanced at me, let out a hollow laugh that fooled no one. "Honey, kids say the darndest things. She didn't mean it. I'll have a talk with her later, I promise. Don't take it to heart."
Children said careless things, sure. But words that vicious didn't come from nowhere. Without someone coaching her, a five-year-old couldn't have strung those sentences together. The timing was too precise. The cruelty too adult.
A maid.
An ATM.
Push me into traffic and let a car kill me.
The way a car killed my child five years ago.
I tugged faintly at the corners of my mouth, but inside, the cold cut straight to the bone.
"Of course I won't blame her. Carina is my own flesh and blood. I risked my life to bring her into this world. How could I hold anything against her?"
"Not only that, but at her fifth birthday celebration next week, I'm planning to transfer all my operational holdings to my baby girl. The hotel, the fronts, the territorial shares. When she comes of age, the entire Montecarlo empire will be hers."
Dante's eyes lit up. He grabbed my hands, barely able to contain himself. That smile appeared — a half-second too quick, too polished, the reflexive charm that preceded whatever calculated thing he was about to say.