Chapter 2

The day after Katerina shot up my car, her people came back with an empty crate.

They wanted every contact file I'd put together for the Vitale family over the past seven years: lawyers, bankers, business associates, the wives of other family heads. There were also the people who'd arranged Theo's private meetings and covered for me afterward.

“Ms. Bellano will be taking over the Donna's duties,” the woman at the door said. “She'd like you to hand over the remaining files.”

I opened the notebook on top. The first page was in my handwriting, from seven years ago.

Theo hadn't secured his position then. Plenty of people still refused to give him the time of day. I went with him to dinner after dinner, sometimes to help close a deal, sometimes to get close to a man he wanted dead.

Which flowers a wife liked. Where her children went to school. Who hated whom.

Theo never remembered any of it. I did. At first, I collected those details to work out who could introduce me to a target.

Once, the night after a job, an infected wound left me running a 102-degree fever. I put on a dress and went to dinner anyway. The man we needed to do business with had brought his wife, and she would only deal with me.

That contract was crucial to the family's expansion. We couldn't afford to lose it.

The deal went through. Everyone congratulated Theo.

No one knew the bandage under my dress was still seeping blood. When we got home, I collapsed on the bathroom floor.

I hadn't resented it then. I was his wife. What he gained, we gained.

Now I had the settlement, and the income from businesses I'd acquired years ago. I could live comfortably for the rest of my life. But if I wanted control over that life, I had to stop leaving my own interests to hired managers while I took care of Theo's.

I packed the family files into the crate.

The woman reached for it, then noticed the three thick address books I'd kept aside.

“Those too.”

“No.” I closed the drawer. “These people are my friends. Whether they choose to deal with Katerina is up to them. She can make her own introductions.”

Some of those contacts had first known me only as the Nightingale. After a few successful jobs for Theo, they'd approached me themselves.

Theo wanted their families' support, so he'd let me take the work. One had paid me with a small dock on the North Shore. Another had given me shares in a freight company.

After I became the Donna, I'd left the dock to a manager and collected my dividends. I was too busy running Theo's household to do much else.

The woman left without another word.

That evening, Theo sent a car for me. He wanted me at the family's annual banquet, where he would announce his engagement to Katerina.

He stood at the front of the brightly lit hall in a black suit. He looked tired, but it was his bare ring finger that caught my attention. A pale band marked where his wedding ring had been.

Katerina stood beside him, wearing the obsidian Donna brooch I'd returned with the files that afternoon.

“As of today, the Vitale and Bellano families are entering a lasting alliance.”

The room applauded. I clapped with everyone else, swallowing the ache in my chest.

Halfway through the evening, the family lawyer stepped forward to discuss the education fund.

I'd proposed it three years earlier, to help children whose fathers had died in family wars. Theo had put me in charge. At every annual banquet since, he'd made a contribution from his personal account.

The lawyer had barely said my name when Katerina turned to Theo.

“She's still in charge?”

“It was Evelyn's idea. The arrangement stands.”

Katerina laughed. “Divorced, and still using the family's resources to buy goodwill.”

The conversation around us stopped.

“Evelyn, you got the estate, the money, the cars. Theo gave you everything he promised. Isn't that enough?”

My fingers tightened around the glass.

“Or did sleeping with a few powerful men make you think you belonged at the same table as their wives?”

“Katerina.” Theo's voice was low.

She looked at him. “Am I wrong?”

After a pause, he said, “The older members here know what Evelyn used to do. She shouldn't represent the family anymore.”

Katerina smiled.

I set down my glass. Before I could speak, Theo turned back to the lawyer.

“Register the fund in Evelyn's name. She'll run it independently. I'll continue making the same annual contribution from my personal account.”

Katerina's smile disappeared.

“She isn't the Donna! Why should she keep control of our charity?”

“I said she wouldn't handle Vitale affairs. I made her a personal promise about that fund. Her position has nothing to do with it.”

Then he addressed the lawyer again.

“One more thing. The family council approved it last night. Evelyn will receive an eight-percent stake in South Port, along with the management rights.”

South Port was the most sought-after waterfront property in the area. Money, business connections, influence. Everyone wanted a piece of it.

I looked up. I hadn't expected that.

The room went silent. Katerina stared at Theo, white-faced.

“Give me the papers,” I said. “I'll sign now.”

Theo held my gaze.

“Seven years, Evelyn. I owe you this.”

I thought of what he'd just said about my past making me unfit to represent the family. The man who'd tried to take South Port from him was one of the men he'd sent me to kill.

The lawyer handed me the documents, and I let myself smile.

Eight percent of the port. Management rights. My own foundation. And the contacts I'd kept for myself.

Eight percent wasn't enough. But it got me a seat at the shareholders' table.