"THE MAFIA BOSS’S FIANCÉE TOLD ME TO SEAT HIS SEVENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD FORMER HOUSEKEEPER IN THE KITCHEN—BUT WHEN I BROUGHT HER TO THE ENGAGEMENT TABLE, LUCA MORETTI STOOD UP AND CALLED HER “MAMA ROSA.”

The air in the office went ice-cold.

Marco Rossi immediately reached for his jacket, reaching toward his shoulder holster. "That old bastard has lost his mind. Threatening civilians? Threatening Rosa?"

Luca held up a single hand, demanding silence. He walked over to the desk, picked up the satellite phone, and clicked the speaker button.

"Salvatore," Luca said, his tone shockingly calm.

A harsh, gravelly voice echoed through the speaker. "Luca. You humiliated my daughter in front of thirty of the most powerful people in the city. You broke a merger agreement that was two years in the making. And you did it for a housemaid and a former servant."

"I did it because your daughter lacks basic human decency, Salvatore," Luca replied evenly. "She offered a seventy-eight-year-old woman cash to hide in a kitchen. She threatened my house staff. She proved she wasn't fit to wear my mother's ring."

"Honor demands satisfaction, Luca," Salvatore Bellini spat out. "The Commission convenes at three o'clock at the Metropolitan Club downtown. You will bring the girl, Emma, and you will bring the old woman. They will admit publicly that they lied about Vanessa's actions, or I will declare open hostilities on every dock you operate."

Luca's eyes narrowed into slits of pure obsidian steel.

"I will be at the Metropolitan Club at three o'clock, Salvatore," Luca said softly. "I will bring Emma. I will bring Rosa. But if you or your family so much as raise your voice to either of them... you won't live to see four o'clock."

He clicked the phone off without waiting for a reply.

Silence heavy as lead blanketed the office. Arthur Vance looked like he was about to faint. "Luca, you can't bring two civilian women into a Commission meeting! It’s unprecedented! It’s a lion's den!"

"Salvatore wants a public spectacle," Luca said, turning to face his men. "He thinks he can intimidate us by using the other crime bosses as leverage. He thinks because Emma is a maid and Rosa is retired, they are weak targets he can crush to force me into line."

Luca walked over to me, looking down at my face with an intense, protective focus.

"Emma," he said gently. "You don't have to go. I can have Marco take you and your father to a safe house in Wisconsin right now."

I looked at Luca. I thought about my father, who was sitting downstairs, finally getting the medical care we had prayed for over two agonizing years. I thought about Rosa, who had ridden two buses across town just to deliver a dead mother's love letter. And I thought about Vanessa Bellini, who believed she could buy, bully, and crush anyone who didn't hold a million-dollar bank account.

"I'm not going to Wisconsin, Mr. Moretti," I said, lifting my chin. "I'll go to the Metropolitan Club."