Chapter 25

Celine's POV

The woman stood outside the black car like she owned it all. Maybe she did.

She was graceful in a way no amount of money could buy, the grace born of generations of breeding and power. She is probably in her sixties, with dark hair streaked with silver pulled back into a perfect chignon. Clothes, which were undoubtedly worth more than my tuition combined. And eyes — cold, judging eyes that I knew right away.

Because I saw them when I looked at Caelum.

"Caelum?" I squeezed his hand, sensing him shake. "Who is that?"

He couldn't speak. Did nothing but look back at the woman as if she were a ghost.

The woman’s smile was unpleasantly razor edged and predatory. "Hello, son. We need to talk."

"Your mother?" I whispered. “I thought you told me she was dead?”

"I thought she was." His voice was choking, hardly to be distinguished.

The woman —Vivienne, I would later find out her name was — fixed her cool eyes on me. Eyed me up and down the way a spider examines its prey before it squashes it.

“And this is the girl who’s been making trouble.” Her accent was European, refined. "Charming."

Caelum found his voice finally. "You faked your death."

"I had my reasons. Good ones, in fact.” She gestured to the car. "We need to talk. Privately. Get in."

She said it as a command, as though she were waiting for prompt obedience.

“No.” Caelum squeezed my hand. “Whatever you say to me, you say in front of her.”

Vivienne's smile sharpened. "So it's like that. How... quaint. Very well. Your penthouse, then. One hour. Don't be late."

Without waiting for an answer she climbed back into the car. The door shut and the car motored off into traffic.

We just stood there both trying to comprehend what had done happened.

"Your mother," I said finally. “Your mother who you assumed was dead for how many years?”

"Twenty years." Caelum's voice was flat, emotionless. “She left when I was twelve. Left a note, couldn’t do it anymore. Three days later, her car was discovered at the base of a ravine. Body burned beyond recognition. DNA matched. We buried her."

"Then who—"

"I don't know." He looked at me and for the first time, I saw fear in his eyes. “But if she’s here, it’s not over. Nothing is finished."

Kent showed up next to us, his face unhappy. "Boss, we need to move. If she traces you there, so could someone else.”

We got in the car. Nobody said anything as we rode to the penthouse and Caelum’s silence spoke for everyone.

\---

Vivienne was sitting waiting for us when we arrived.

In his living room as if it were her own, holding a glass of his whiskey. She’d managed to let herself in somehow, despite all his security.

“You’re late,” she said, her eyes still on the page.

"It's my house." Caelum's voice was cold. "How did you get in?"

“I built this place myself, so I wired these security codes. I own 40% of that development." She finally looked at him. “Did you honestly believe I was not observing you, all these years?”

Caelum was sitting opposite her and he dragged me down beside him. He found my hand and squeezed slightly too hard.

"Why are you here?"

"Because Nikolai Volkov is dead. Because the European networks are a power vacuum. Because there’s a bunch of other families waiting in the wings who are circling like sharks, and they’re looking at you as either the solution or the problem.” She took a sip of whiskey. “I’m here to make sure you choose right.”

"I'm not choosing anything. I'm done with that life."

Vivienne laughed. It was a lovely sound, musical and cold. "You think you can just quit? Leave everything your father’s worked for, that I’ve spent twenty years protecting? They will interpret it as weakness, Caelum. They'll come for you. And her."

Her eyes fell on me and I felt like an animal that knows it’s been targeted by a predator.

“I can take care of her,” Caelum promised.

"Can you? And barely at that. Nikolai was just one old man with a grudge; you were no match for him. What if five families come for you at the same time? When they go after any and all people you love to get under your skin? She leaned forward. "You need to sit where you're assigned. Not as Don of one territory, but as the head of the whole darn network. Gather the families around Morano. It's what your father wanted. It’s what I’ve been working for.”

"I never wanted this."

"Irrelevant. It's what you are." She stood, smoothing her skirt. "You have one week to decide. I’ll pick for you after that. And believe me, sonny, you will not like my methods.”

She stood, made her way to the door. "And Miss Moretti? Welcome to the family. I do hope you survive it."

Then she was gone.

The silence she vacated was blaring.

\---

We sat there for a while without saying anything. I didn't know what to say. Didn’t understand any of this.

Finally, Caelum stood abruptly. "I need to make calls. Handle this."

"Handle what? Your mother who faked her death and seems to be running the European mafia?” My voice was getting louder, hysteria seeping in. "What other thing about you don’t I know? What other skeleton in the closet is lurking in your family tree?”

"I thought she was dead!" He whirled around to face me, rage for once matching mine. “You’re saying I knew about any of this? That I was secretly the mafia queen mother?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore!” I rose as well, across the coffee table from him. “Just when I think I’m starting to understand your world, it gets deeper and darker. Your father was mafia. Your mom is apparently worse still. What does that make you?"

"You know what it makes me."

"Do I? Because the man I love tells me he is walking away. Said he wanted to be better. But can you actually walk away from this? Alone but drinking alone or is this who you will always be?”

The question stood between us, sharp and awful.

“I’m not sure,” he said softly. “I don’t know if I can walk away when walking away is guaranteeing your safety less.”

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know that either."

I grabbed my bag. "I need space. I need to think."

"Celine—"

"Please. Just... give me tonight. Let me process this."

It looked as if I had stabbed him, but he nodded. "Okay. Whatever you need."

Kent drove me back to campus. We didn’t talk on the way there.

\---

The dorm felt surreal.

As stepping into an alternate dimension where things were normal and safe and boring. Schoolmates walked by, speaking of exams and parties and drama that felt impossibly petty now.

I let myself into my room. It was back to a normal, even stillness that made tears prickle my eyes; Maddie, at her desk studying and looking so appallingly normal.

She glanced up when I walked in, then bounded to her feet and hugged me so hard I thought she’d break something.

"Oh my God. You're okay. You're really okay." She drew back, looking into my face. "Please tell me it's over. Please tell me the nightmare is over.”

I wanted to say yes. Wanted to tell her everything would be all right now, that Caelum and I could be normal.

But I couldn't lie to her.

"I don't know," I admitted.

She read something in my face which turned her white. "What happened now?"

"His mother showed up. The one he thought was dead."

"What?"

I told her everything. About Vivienne, about the power vacuum, about Caelum’s decision. When I was done, Maddie sat on her bed with her face in her hands.

"This is insane. You know that, right? This is totally bonkers.”

"I know."

"You should run. Get as far away as possible. Let him handle his psycho mafia family and you’re not it.”

"I love him."

"Love isn't enough!" She looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears. "Love doesn't stop bullets, Cee. It won’t save you from people who want to kill you. You have to learn to think about yourself for a change.”

"I am thinking about myself. And I don’t know what I would do without him.”

She began to open her mouth as if to argue, but then she stopped. Directed toward the ground in the area of a door.

There was a black envelope on it, as though someone had slid it under while we were talking.

My hands shook handing it the clip. Expensive paper. Heavy. My name in silver.

I opened it.

An invitation. Formal, embossed, terrifying.

"You are invited to attend the Family Council. A conclave of five founding houses to deal with matters of inheritance and territory. Your presence is required."

Underneath that, two names added as attendees.

Caelum Morano.

And next to it: Celine Moretti, Consort.

Consort.

"What does that mean?" Maddie said, leaning over my shoulder to read.

“It means his mother just told the entire mob family of Europe I’m his fucking boyfriend. His equal. His weakness." My voice was shaking. “It means I’m literally a target now.”

Maddie grabbed my shoulders. "Then don't go. Then tear up that invitation and stay here where you are safe.”

But we both understood that safe was an illusion at this point.

If the families had known me, staying away wouldn’t be safe for me.

It would only make me look weak.

Make Caelum look weak.

And in his world, being weak got you killed.