“If she’s really an Orso, why do the Ramsays want anything to do with her?” Threes asks.
“They might not know,” Antony says. “Janna seems to think Cherry is one of her own.”
“Does she?” Threes raises an eyebrow. “Maybe she knew all along.”
“If she did, wouldn’t she be rubbing it in our faces now?”
“She doesn’t know that we know.”
“It’s doesn’t matter,” I say, interrupting their conversation. “I don’t fucking care anymore.”
“Care about what?” Antony asks.
“Any of it,” I reply but don’t elaborate.
“Maybe this is why the other birth certificate was such an obvious forgery,” Threes says. “Maybe we were supposed to figure it all out at some point.”
“You mean Carlo and Mario made it poorly just to leave a clue?” Antony asks.
“It’s possible.”
“But how did Cherry end up with Sofia Ramsay?” Antony tilts his head to one side as he considers this. “Janna went to see Cherry. Does she know Cherry is really one of us, or does she think Cherry is really her sister?”
“Damn good question.” Threes rubs his finger over his chin. “This mystery just keeps getting more complicated.”
“We could try questioning Jay,” Antony says. “We could—”
“No!” It takes everything I have not to haul back and punch him. “No more fucking investigations! It doesn’t fucking matter anymore! Don’t you see that? Everything I’ve been doing these past months has been to get her back, and it worked. It fucking worked!” I slam my fist on the top of the desk. “What was it all for? Nothing, that’s what!”
“We needed to know the truth,” Antony says quietly.
“Yeah, a lot of good that’s done me.”
“We still have shit to figure out,” Antony says. “We’re…we’re here for ya, but we have to figure out how this is going to affect the family.”
“It doesn’t.”
“It might not be up to you anymore,” Threes says. “I mean, if Cherry is an Orso, she and Nora have a say in what happens with the family business, right?”
“Of course they do.”
“Nora’s never been all that interested,” Antony says. “If she wanted more control, she could have pushed for it.”
“But we don’t know how Cherry will feel abut it,” Threes says. “She might want some control.”
“She doesn’t want anything to do with any of us.”
“For now, sure,” Threes says. “She’s upset, just like you are. But what if she changes her mind in the future? We have to prepare for that.”
“No more.” I shake my head, no longer yelling at either of them. I don’t have the energy. “I can’t deal with this anymore. I know you’re both trying to help, but consider it closed for now.”
“Nate—”
“I said it’s closed!”
“All right, boss.” Antony lets out a long sigh. “It’s closed…for now.”
They decide a game of pool and more drinking are needed before dinner, but I’m just not up for it. I don’t think I could stomach food right now, and the whiskey I’m drinking isn’t sitting well. Maybe it’s best I just call it an early night.
I leave the unfinished drink on the desk and head back to my room. Before I get to the stairs, I hear a soft voice calling me.
“Nataniele?”
“What?” I turn to see my aunt Kate standing in the hallway behind me, wringing her hands.
“I need to speak with you.”
“About?”
“In your office, if you please. We should speak privately.”
Something in her voice makes me follow her back to the office. She sits in one of the high back chairs and continues twisting her fingers in her lap.
“Kate, what is it?”
“Would you mind pouring me a brandy?” she asks.
“Since when do you drink?”
“I do on occasion.” Kate squares her shoulders then sighs. “I think I might need one here just to calm the nerves.”
I hand her a brandy, and Kate stares at the glass in her hands for a full minute.
“Well?” I finally say.
“I need to tell you about the treaty between the Orsos and the Ramsays,” she says.
“I already know about the treaty.”
“Yes, of course, but there are some details that were…left out of the core paperwork. An addendum, you might say.”
“So?” The last thing I want to talk about is the family business or the fucking treaty with the Ramsays.
“Well, it’s very…lopsided, isn’t it?”
“Lopsided?”
“When the treaty was signed, the Orso family got the bulk of territory. All in all, we got the better deal. Did you ever wonder why that was?”
“Ramsays kept the drug trade. That’s a lot more profitable.”
“We weren’t all that invested in the drug trade, even back then,” Kate says. “Giving it up was a minor concession.”
“I should have told you all of this a long time ago,” Kate says. “I thought I would when Carlo died, but everything happened so quickly. Then Cherice appeared out of nowhere, and I wasn’t sure what I should do. I’m sorry, Nataniele. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything sooner.”
“You haven’t told me everything now,” I say impatiently. “Could you get on with it, please?”
“Yes, of course. I’m so sorry.” Kate takes in a deep breath and stares down at her folded hands as she speaks. “When we were at war with the Ramsays thirty-some years ago, we were so evenly matched, we knew we had to come to an agreement, or both families would be destroyed. We weren’t as favored back then, and the other families refused to take sides. They didn’t care who came out on top since they could get documents from either family.
“They didn’t get involved at all until Quinton, Carlo’s and my younger brother, turned up dead in Washington State. Finding his body in the Seattle mob’s territory was an outrage to them, and they demanded we settle the
