Chapter 4

July arrived before I knew it.

The ballroom on the top floor of the Bay Hotel was brilliantly lit.

Tonight was the annual memorial dinner honoring the old Don on the anniversary of his death. More than three hundred family members had turned out.

By family tradition, the first candle at the annual memorial dinner had to be lit by a member of the Vitale family.

It was more than a tribute to the old Don. It was a public declaration of who truly held power in the Vitale family.

I stood beside a marble pillar at the edge of the ballroom.

At the head of the long table, before the old Don's portrait, Isabella stood in an exquisitely tailored black velvet gown, her expression gentle and solemn.

Riccardo, in a well-cut suit, stood beside her. They looked like a match made in heaven.

My uncle had been invited too, but he was seated at a table farther from the stage.

He gazed up at Isabella on the stage, his face full of pride.

The ceremony began.

The emcee's voice rang out across the ballroom. “Please light the memorial candle!”

Isabella didn't even glance at me.

She walked straight to the candelabra, took a match from the attendant, and lit the thick candle herself.

Then she and Riccardo stood side by side before the candle and bowed deeply to the old Don's portrait.

The three hundred family members in the ballroom burst into applause.

“Ms. Conti, thank you for all your hard work these years!”

“Here's to another brilliant year for the Vitale family!”

Applause and cheers swept through the ballroom. No one noticed me standing alone in the corner.

I had become a nobody, not even worth a second glance.

When the ceremony ended, the crowd began to thin.

I turned to leave.

“Luca, wait a moment.”

Isabella's voice came from behind me.

She and Riccardo approached me side by side, their smiles still in place.

Riccardo pulled a white envelope from his inner jacket pocket and held it out to me.

“Luca, things have been so hectic tonight that I almost forgot the most important part.”

As the ballroom quieted, his voice carried across the room.

“At last week's Council meeting, the Council formally voted to freeze your dividend account because you failed to attend without an excuse.”

He looked at me with an expression of practiced concern.

“Luca, you're an adult now. It's time to learn to support yourself.”

“There's three thousand dollars in cash in here. From now on, the administration department will deposit that amount into your account every month.”

He slipped the envelope into my coat pocket, then straightened my collar as casually as if he were doing me a favor.

“Learn to manage your money. Stop wasting it like you used to.”

“This is how you'll learn to be independent sooner.”

Isabella stood beside him, took a sip from her glass, and nodded.

“That's right, Luca. Riccardo means well.”

“A wolf raised in a greenhouse will never learn to survive in the wild.”

“Once you learn to live on three thousand dollars a month, you'll understand why we did this.”

I glanced down at the envelope in my pocket and almost laughed.

Three million dollars a month in dividends, reduced to a three-thousand-dollar handout.

They dressed up outright theft in such lofty language that I almost wanted to applaud.

“You froze my dividends, took over my father's estate, and now you won't even let me light the first candle at his memorial.”

I looked at them calmly. I felt neither anger nor resentment.

“Isabella, do you think this family is now completely yours?”

Isabella frowned slightly, as if disappointed by my ingratitude.

“Luca, you're always so extreme.”

“This family belongs to those who have bled for it, not to someone who thinks his last name entitles him to everything.”

She glanced at her watch, clearly finished with the conversation.

“Enough. We have to get back to the building for a video conference with our overseas partners. Find your own way home.”

With that, she and Riccardo headed for the elevator and went down to the black armored Lincoln waiting outside.

I didn't stop them. I just stood there and watched the car pull out of the hotel and vanish into the night.

Half an hour later, on the top floor of the Vitale Building.

Isabella and Riccardo stepped out of the elevator, chatting and laughing as they approached her office.

Isabella pulled a black-and-gold access card with top-level clearance from her handbag and swiped it across the reader.

“Beep. Access denied.”