Of volume lineage

I darted to the window and looked down. Stretches of windows and the crowded street greeted me. No sign of the thief.

Shit.

Without another thought, I sprinted upstairs and practically threw myself over Giova

“Get up! There is–was–a girl in your study!”

Giova

“She’s gone now,” I said quickly. “She jumped out the window!”

My husband paused. He gave me a bizarre look.

“Don’t give me that look,” I snapped. “I’m not lying.”

Giova

“Do you believe me?” I asked eventually.

“Not yet.” I opened my mouth to argue when he said, “Get dressed.”

“Why? Where are we going?”

He placed the gun back in the nightstand, not bothering to even glance at me. “To see my sister.”

Sister?

 

Miles below our apartment, past the underground carpark and boiler rooms, a small room that resembled a spaceship was located. Monitors covered all the walls, the blue light of their screens illuminating the room just enough for me to make out the cobalt-haired girl swinging around on a swivel chair.

“Giuseppina.”

She stopped, before slowly twisting the chair around to face us. I spotted the pink scarring that cut down from her forehead to her cheek immediately. They were violent and brutal markings; someone had obviously tried to hurt her badly. Giuseppina looked younger than me, with round cheeks and wide eyes. She shared Giova

“Isabella, this is my half-sister, Giuseppina. She oversees all cybersecurity.”

She sent me a shy look. “I prefer Giusy.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I sent Giova

“Half,” Giusy said quickly. “We have different mothers.”

I looked between the two of them, trying to understand this relationship a little more. My husband was his usual calm and cold self, but the young girl was chewing on her nails, cheeks pink. Everyone knew Lorenzo Vigliano had spread his seed throughout the country and sired bastards in every city, I just wasn’t aware Giova

I recalled the photo of him and his nameless twin in the study. How many in-laws did I have that I didn’t know about?

“Isabella saw a woman this evening in my study,” Giova

I sent him another glare before insisting to Giusy, “I did. She jumped out the study window and disappeared.”

Giusy’s eyes widened. “I didn’t see anyone.” She sent a nervous glance to her brother. “I would’ve said something if I had seen something.”

“I know you would’ve,” he said. Indulge my wife, he didn’t add but it went unspoken.

My temper rose but I pushed it down. Once he saw I was right, he’d bite his words.

Giusy spun back to her monitors. It was then I realized what was displayed on the screens. Every angle of our apartment building and the streets surrounding it were shown, including hallways, the parking lot, and elevators. Even the dumbbell had a camera situated inside it.

Our apartment was covered from hundreds of angles. All but inside could be monitored and watched.

I sent Giova

“Is that you smoking on the balcony?”

I looked to the screen. The cameras on the balcony had caught me hiding behind a pot plant, enjoying my cigarette. My face wasn’t visible but no one else in the house had a feathery red dressing gown so it was obviously me.

My cheeks heated but I refused to shrink beneath Giova

“Vincent wears slippers covered in feathers to smoke on my balcony?”

I ignored him. “It happened a few minutes later. I sat with Marzia for about fifteen minutes–”

“Why were you with Marzia?” Giova

“She couldn’t sleep and wanted me to lay down with her,” I said dismissively. “When I was leaving, I saw the thief.”

“Thief? Did she steal something?” Giusy asked.

Giova

“Well, no,” I mumbled. “But she said she wanted to.” I added, “She also said I should become an art forger.”

“A career to consider at another time.” My husband sounded faintly amused.

I cut my eyes to him. There was no hint of humor in his features, but he felt a bit lighter, a bit more forward with his reactions.

Giusy continued to scroll through the security footage. She was quiet for a few minutes before glancing nervously at my husband. “I don’t see anything.”

“Look again,” I snapped then cringed when she flinched. “If you wouldn’t mind, please look again.” I softened my voice with apology.

She sent me a tiny smile before going through the footage again. Giova

Had I imagined it? Surely not. I had a big imagination, but it wasn’t capable of creating corporeal visions.

Both Viglianos were looking at me.

“I saw someone. I’m not lying nor am I insane.”

“But there’s nothing on the camera…” She glanced at Giova

“Don’t the cameras have blind spots?”

“They rotate every 80 seconds,” Giova

I nodded like I had proven my point. “Exactly. Plenty of time for someone to sneak through.”

Neither of them looked convinced. With no more reason to be in Giusy’s lair, my husband and I left, walking through the grungy hallways with broken pipes and water stains in the shapes of clouds, until we reached the underground parking lot.

“If you wanted my attention, Isabella, you didn’t need to concoct an elaborate lie.”

I stopped and slowly turned to my husband. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t have the patience or time to anticipate your needs. If you want something, use your words; you don’t need to create a scenario.”

The wires in my brain short-circuited before hot lava-like rage poured through my veins.

“I’ve wanted to hit you a few times since we met, Giova

My husband didn’t react to my anger. To him, all my emotions were the same shade. “So, you had an entire conversation with an intruder, down the hall from where my daughter slept, and then chose until after they had gotten away to alert me?”

“It wasn’t premeditated, Giova

“It just happened? If any of my men ever explained away a mistake with a sentence so trivial, I’d put a bullet in the back of their head.”

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to Marzia, Giova

He didn’t believe me. The distrust in his blue eyes sparkled like diamonds.

I put my hands on my hips, trying to appear as threatening as possible despite still being in my dressing gown. The feathers around the neckline tickled my neck but I ignored them.