Page 37 of Knight
She is not the woman standing beside him.
I am.
I stay knowing that.
Somewhere in this house of dead kings and armed shadows, a quiet brother with patient eyes watches me choose his brother,and he files it the way he files everything — silently, precisely, for later.
I just became part of this war.
I simply don't know it yet.
7
romeo
The Ultimatum
The Message That Closes Every Door
The envelope is on my desk when I walk in.
Cream linen. Heavy stock. The kind of paper that costs more per sheet than most people spend on stationery in a year. And pressed into the crimson wax seal — a crest I haven't seen since the King was alive.
My blood goes cold.
I know this seal. Giovanni had it forged in Palermo thirty years ago. A crown over crossed swords. The mark of the inner circle — the men who swore blood oaths to my father and meant them the way other men mean wedding vows. Permanent. Binding. Enforceable by steel.
I pick up the envelope. It weighs nothing. It weighs everything.
Fabio is standing in the doorway. His face tells me he already knows what's inside.
"When did this arrive?" I ask.
"Six this morning. Hand-delivered. The courier waited until the guard signed for it and then disappeared."
I break the seal with my thumb and the wax cracks in two pieces that fall onto my desk like dropped teeth. The paper inside is folded once. Typed. Formal language — the old-world protocol that Giovanni loved because it made threats sound like invitations.
To the current head of the Rivas Organization—
Current head. They can't even bring themselves to use my name.
—it is the position of the undersigned that the alliance pact between the Rivas and Marchese families, executed in good faith by Giovanni Rivas, remains binding and enforceable. The terms of said pact require the marriage of the second Rivas son to Valentina Marchese. Failure to honor this agreement within thirty calendar days of this notice will constitute a formal dissolution of all territorial, financial, and strategic alliances between the signatories and the Rivas Organization. Dissolution proceedings will be immediate and comprehensive.
Immediate and comprehensive. In this world that means bodies. Burned assets. Every ally we have turning their back atthe same time and the Marchese militia — outnumbering Fabio's team four to one — walking through whatever's left.
I read it again. The second read is worse because the second time I see the signatures.
Three names beneath the Marchese patriarch's.
Caruso. Bellini. Fontana.
My father's men. His loyalists. The backbone of the Shadow Network that was supposed to protect this family after the King fell. They've co-signed the ultimatum. They are endorsing the destruction of Giovanni's own empire if Giovanni's own son doesn't obey a dead man's handshake.
The paper trembles in my grip and I set it flat against the desk before Fabio can see it.
The King's watch ticks against my wrist. Steady. Patient. Counting down something I can feel in my teeth.
Thirty days. That was the number Santino gave me weeks ago. This makes it official. This makes it a sentence.
