Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1)(30)

“Violet, wait,” Andrea said.

She stopped. “Yeah?”

“I forgot to tell you earlier, but I left a few dresses from my new collection upstairs in my studio office. I know your friends liked them, so I kept them for you to have.”

Violet was shocked her mother had even cared enough to do that. “Okay, thanks.”

Andrea simply waved her off again.

Wanting to get back to Manhattan before the sky started to darken, Violet quickly made her way back through the mansion and up to the wing where her father’s and mother’s offices were located. She found the dress bags her mother mentioned easily enough, and slung them around her arm. She was just leaving the studio when she realized she had also forgotten her textbook in Alberto’s office.

Violet shifted the few dress bags to her other arm as she stopped just outside of her father’s office. The doors had been open all the way earlier when she left, but now they were closed except for a couple of inches. She could clearly hear her father and brother talking inside.

“I can’t make your mother give you the ring,” Alberto said, almost sardonically.

“I know you can, Papa.”

“It’s her ring to do with what she wants. It didn’t come from my family. Do you want my family’s ring? I have that one.”

Carmine grunted something unintelligible.

“She’s spoiled you rotten, and that is exactly the problem,” Alberto said with no sympathy in his tone. “She denies you one thing and you go on a rampage. Did you consider that’s why she did it?”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“You don’t want to hear the truth, Carmine.”

“No, we have better things to discuss.”

“Indulge me,” Alberto said, sounding bored all of the sudden.

“The Russians.”

“It’s handled.”

“Then why don’t you sound pleased with that fact?” Carmine asked.

Alberto sighed heavily. “I worry about your sister, that’s all. She liked the one all those years ago—made fast friends with him in a very short amount of time. I don’t need that happening again.”

Violet’s brow furrowed. She remembered Kaz saying they had met once before, but she hadn’t believed him. Her father wouldn’t mingle with Russians, not guessing by the way he so easily dismissed and insulted them every chance he could.

But here Alberto was, saying Violet had met Kaz when they were children.

“Do you think the Russian boss will keep his end of the deal?” Carmine asked. “It’s been years. He could decide with recent events that it’s just not worth the peace of mind, anymore.”

Alberto scoffed loudly. “Peace of mind, Carmine? My God, son, you are a fool. You walk around in a bubble of your own making half of the time, believing that because of who you are, the rest of your life will be an easy road to travel. There is no such thing as peace of mind here, and that meeting brought neither me, nor Vasily Markovic, any peace, either.”

“Didn’t it?” Carmine asked. “The fighting stopped.”

“For a price,” Alberto muttered.

What price was that?

Inside, Violet knew she was too curious about something that clearly wasn’t her business to begin with. Still, she moved a little closer to the doors, wanting to hear every little word if her brother and father decided to talk quieter.

“My point,” Alberto said, “is that I worry about your sister. When she finds something she likes—someone—she trusts them too easily. She has too many friends as it is that I don’t approve of.”

“You could fix the problem by getting rid of it altogether.”

Violet’s heart stopped for a split second.

It only lasted as long as her father’s silence.

Alberto barked out another one of his bitter laughs. “See, there you go again, Carmine. You shoot off at the mouth like you understand how this works, like there will be no consequences for your rash decisions. No, I cannot justify the war and bloodshed it would cause me if I killed the son of Vasily Markovic.”

“Papa—”

“Once again, son, you managed to prove to me in very few words how unprepared you are for a position you think belongs to you, simply because you were born a boy.”

Ouch.

Even Violet flinched at that.

Clearly she wasn’t the only one who had disappointed their father lately.

“What about Franco?” Carmine demanded.

“What about your foolish friend?”

“He deserves some kind of retribution for what happened.”

Something smacked against something hard, making it echo out to Violet’s spot in the hallway. “Goddammit, I am not getting into this again. I said no to that. The answer is no. If that enforcer defies me simply because he is your friend and he thinks he can get away with it, I will cut his f*cking heart out.”

Violet had no idea what her father was talking about, but she decided in that moment her textbook could wait. She didn’t want to be caught listening, and she really didn’t want to hear anything else.

She couldn’t get out of the mansion fast enough.





“You look wonderful,” Alberto praised, taking Violet’s hand as she approached him. “I see you managed to find a dress.”