Serafina threw her head back, laughing so hard she shook. "See? I told you. Swapping out her little brat was the smartest thing we ever did. My only regret is that I didn't floor the gas hard enough to send her straight to the morgue."
"It's not too late. Next week is Carina's birthday. Once she signs the operational transfer papers over, I'll play the video of her 'cheating' in front of everyone, force the renunciation, and push her out with nothing. Everything the Montecarlo Family owns will be ours."
After the laughter died down, Carina covered her eyes with her little hands in an exaggerated performance. "Daddy and Mommy are kissing! Carina can't see anything!"
The two of them leaned over the child and kissed like they couldn't bear to part.
I stared straight ahead, my fingers tightening around the steering wheel inch by inch.
Easiest mark.
Pathetic.
Send her to the morgue.
Swap out her child.
Blood welled up in my throat. I forced it back down.
Half an hour later, the happy family of three dragged several oversized suitcases out and piled into their car, chatting and laughing. They didn't check the street. Didn't scan the parked cars the way anyone connected to a Family should. They had no soldiers, no lookout, no discipline. Just the careless ease of people spending someone else's money.
I sat in place for ten minutes. My skull hummed. My mind was blank. Through the windshield, the iron gate of the Kingsgate villa stood open behind them, and a light on the second floor still glowed in the room they'd just left. The room I had paid for. The life I had funded, down to the last silk pillowcase.
My assistant's call jolted me awake.
"Donna Montecarlo, the person you asked me to find. I found her."
My whole body went rigid. I barely trusted my own ears.
It took a long time before I found my voice again, and when I did, it was shaking. "Where?"
The Montecarlo Estate to Ashford. Over five hundred miles. I didn't stop once.
When I got out of the car, my legs were trembling so badly I nearly buckled. My assistant caught my arm.
"Donna Montecarlo, take it easy. She's right here, in this orphanage."
The building sat at the dead end of a road that didn't appear on any Family map. No territory. No protection. No one with connections would ever look here, and that was the point.