Chapter 2

After hanging up, I took out my luggage and packed a few clothes and my personal documents. The jewelry and gowns Vincenzo gave me were still neatly arranged in the dressing room. I had no intention of bringing them along.

Vincenzo came back the next morning, still wearing the same suit he'd worn at the shooting range. Seeing my cold expression, he wrapped his arms around me, his rough stubble scraping against my neck. "Are you still angry about yesterday?"

I cut a piece of the fried egg and shoved it into my mouth. "No."

He was about to say something when his phone suddenly rang. After he hung up, he pulled a yellowed booklet from his briefcase.

"Perfect. I need your help on something."

I froze when I flipped to the first page. It was the dock records passed down from Papa's generation. They contained the dock numbers, nighttime signal codes, and docking signals used decades ago.

"Someone's been watching the docks we use most often lately." Vincenzo pointed to a few pages. "Tonight, yesterday's shipment of guns will be transferred through the old docks, and Siena will be in charge of receiving it."

I looked up. "What do you need me to do?"

"You learned all of these from your Papa and know them well, so I need you to reorganize the signal codes."

He actually remembered.

When I was 19, I memorized those boring signal codes over and over just so I could go to the docks with him. When Vincenzo found out, he took the notes out of my hands.

"Melisenda, those places aren't for you."

He never mentioned it again, but now that Siena needed them, he'd suddenly remembered.

"Can you get it done before evening?"

"Yes."

Vincenzo exhaled in relief and leaned down to kiss my forehead. "I knew I could trust you with this."

I sat at the dining table for a while before flipping the booklet open again. I told myself I'd do this one last thing for the Famiglia.

That afternoon, I relabeled the signal codes and emergency exits. The exit at the west-side warehouse hadn't been used in years, and I wasn't sure if the passage was still there, so I decided to check it out myself.

As soon as my car stopped, I heard construction noises coming from inside. A dozen workers were tearing down a wall.

I called out to Filippo. "What's going on here?"

"Siena came over earlier, and when she saw there was only one exit, she said it would be difficult to escape if anything happened. So Don Ricci had people reopen the old sealed exit."

I looked inside.

A month ago, when I came here to pick up the things Papa left behind, I told Vincenzo the emergency door was broken. But he didn't even look up.

He just said, "We hardly ever use the west warehouse. Just get someone to fix it."

Now, because of Siena, the walls were already half torn down.

Footsteps came from ahead as Siena and Vincenzo emerged from the old training room.

She turned to look at the walls, riddled with bullet holes. "This place actually still exists."

"You told me this was where you first learned how to use a gun."

Vincenzo raised his hand and stopped a worker who was about to repaint the wall. "Leave this wall as it is."

Siena laughed. "You still remembered?"

"What? Like it's hard to remember?"

I stood at the warehouse entrance and watched them laugh and chat, my expression cold. Then I told Filippo to hand the documents to Vincenzo before leaving.

That night, Siena took a team to the old docks to pick up the first shipment of weapons, following the signal codes I'd organized.

At 11:00 pm, I was getting ready for bed when the manor phone suddenly rang.

Filippo's voice was unusually tense. "Donna Ricci, bad news. After Siena arrived at the docks, she used the signal codes you organized to make contact, but the other side never responded. They nearly mistook each other for enemies."

I sat up straight. "What do you mean?"

"After they checked again, they found a set of incorrect signal codes in the documents Siena had."

I gripped the phone tightly. "What happened next?"

"She realized something was wrong just in time, and the convoy changed course. There haven't been any major problems so far, but… She cried her eyes out in front of Don Ricci, saying she'd been badly shaken. Don Ricci is furious and wants to investigate the whole thing."

Within half an hour, I found out what Vincenzo meant by a thorough investigation.

The person in charge of the Famiglia's internal security soon arrived at the manor and came to see me. "Donna Ricci, we need your cooperation in our investigation."

I stared at them in disbelief. "My documents would never be wrong. Someone must have tampered with the data."

The person in charge looked troubled. "We need to investigate to determine if it was your fault. We're just doing this on orders."