Contact of Shadows

Castella

lose everything, I was sitting across from t

I knew businesses failed. It was the pity. They wat

no firm wasn

ocument across the mahogany table. "The firm covered its expenses last year. Our

your cli

y wi

ide him, that small, discreet look peopl

mstances are complic

at was the

d taught me for men who mistook courtesy

did the smile fall away. My reflection stared back: auburn hair, per

pearances

ingers to my eyes for exactly th

TH

o, Mo

did i

fered me a private

softly, "Vivi

my. She was a proud woman who had spent years

fused,"

es

ling. Co

wait until

eas

hid fear better than anyone I knew, and I c

com

-

oved this house. He used to say every room held a memory and every generation owed it prote

quiet. Now it felt like a monument

could knock, her hands twisting togeth

e all

wer. That was

aked hair pinned neatly, face gray with exhaustion

w b

darl

ather

ut a thick, aging folder. "I s

with an English translation. Two signatures

ate, shipping, investments, and, in whispers,

, made decades ago in Sicily. I read the marriage clause

this is

were." Her

his descendants to the Marche

no

utely not. I didn't give my life to this firm s

he was pro

hook. "Who am I s

March

om wen

. A man whose father's murder had turned an heir into something harder. Charming,

g me to marry

ng you to

f I re

cords of our family's dealings with them. If those become publ

ather

N

face, wanting to believe

as trembling. "There's more. My i

questions, hidden appointments, called herself only tired.

, she couldn't pay for he

't use that,

er silence was heav

curled up: a girl on a study sofa, terrified of a world without the people who kept her

Mother, I'm not angry at you. I'm

cheek. "I didn't wa

won

I wasn't surrendering. But f

s contact i

know what

'll fin

d. "Does he actually

one who asked that the

dn't been forced into this. He had chosen i

a contract, I would give him a n

-

dow, watching the lights of New York. A photograp

s read it. She's furious.

touched Dante'

re pl

woman who as

ned in his chest, something he refused to name. For years, the Accordo had been

meeting.

she re

won

hat. I had no intent

oth wounded, both guarding secrets, about to learn how much th