“About what?”
“That your fire wasn’t only a spark.”
Somehow he knows who Valentina was before her father reshaped her. He knows who hides beneath the Phoenix, and shame begins to creep through me for allowing Dante to silence me so easily.
He intimidated me—and I let him.
“I understand your point,” I admit quietly. “I’ve been away too long to remember who I’m allowed to be here.”
“It’s time for you to find yourself again and leave the cage, uccellino. The Cosa Nostra is not ruled from behind bars.”
I don’t have time to answer because the Don rises and captures everyone’s attention by tapping his champagne glass, the sound echoing like my destiny itself. A few words are exchanged and laughter erupts at something he says, but I force myself to breathe and focus.
“My friends, we all kn
