I picked up my phone and sent a message to the woman who had relayed Silvana's announcement, one of the wives who always smiled too wide at me at Sunday dinners. Four words: Good for her.
The phone rang before I could set it down.
Simone's voice came through tight, controlled, the way he sounded when a deal was going sideways. "Come on. I just helped Silvana out. Don't blow this up, Grazia. Please."
I listened to the sound of his breathing. I could hear a car engine in the background. He was driving somewhere. Or being driven. Dante would be behind the wheel, tapping his watch, knowing this call would end badly.
I hung up.
The silence in the kitchen was enormous. The refrigerator hummed. Outside, one of the guards shifted position on the gravel drive, his footsteps crunching once, then stopping.
I pressed my thumb against the inside of my wedding ring and turned it. Slowly. A full rotation.
It was time to consider dissolving the alliance.
……
I touched my belly in the bathroom, where the light was too bright and the tile was cold under my bare feet.