Capo Knows Something

The Martinelli dining hall was a monument of opulence and tension, its vaulted ceilings dripping with the cold glow of a crystal chandelier. Morning light fractured through its prisms, scattering jagged shards of illumination over the twenty-foot mahogany table. Gia sat at her usual seat, her chair positioned like an afterthought, her untouched coffee forming a bitter black mirror that reflected the fractured world above.

The clink of silverware against porcelain echoed like a blade being sharpened, each sound scraping against her frayed nerves.

At the other end of the cavernous room, Adriana hunched over her plate, her fork trembling as she pushed roasted mushrooms into precise, uneaten rows.

Francesca's eyes bored daggers through her daughter's head, Matteo caught on and cleared his throat uncomfortably. He subtly nudged his sister with his elbow. Adriana flinched, her gaze snapping from Matteo, who nodded in their mother's direction, to their motther and back to her plate.

Message received.

Alvan entered last, his tailored charcoal suit immaculate, his presence a winter storm sweeping through the room. He took his seat beside Omri without glancing at Gia, his face carved from marble. Sophia's smirk deepened as she sipped her mimosa, the glass leaving a smudge on her vermilion lips.

There was just something off about her that morning. Almost everyone on the table wondered what she must have said or done to stop Omri from punishing her after the incident from the day before.

"How domestic we all are this morning," she purred, nudging her chair leg sharply. Nadia's gray cat, Bandit, hissed and darted beneath the table, its tail brushing Gia's ankle.

Ah-choo!

Gia's sneeze shattered the fragile silence. Her eyes watered instantly, her nose burning as the cat retreated to Sophia's side.

Vinnie Martinez, his mouth full of syrup-drenched pancakes, snorted. "Someone get the girl a tissue before she drowns in her own snot."

Omri's fist struck the table. "Language."

The room froze. Silverware stilled. Even Bandit paused mid-lick.

Gia stood, her chair screeching against marble. "Excuse me."

No one stopped her.

Gia fled to the library, a sanctuary of dust and decaying leather. Floor-to-ceiling shelves loomed like sentinels, their shadows stretching across Persian rugs worn thin by generations of Martinelli secrets. She trailed her fingers along the spines of untouched classics, pausing at The Art of War. Its gilded title flaked under her touch.

"Predictable."

Alvan's voice cut through the silence. He leaned in the doorway, backlit by the hall's pallid light, his posture rigid.

Gia didn't turn. "Come to scold me for abandoning your precious family tableau?"

"You're dripping on the rug."

She touched her nose—blood smeared her fingertip. The sneezing had torn a capillary.

Alvan tossed his monogrammed pocket square. It fluttered to her feet like a surrender flag.

She left it there.

The grandfather clock ticked between them, counting seconds thick with unsaid words.

"I left something in your study," she said.

He ignored her words. He had seen it.

"Page forty-three," he said finally, nodding at the book.

When his footsteps faded, Gia flipped to the page. A single sentence was underlined in violent ink:

"All warfare is based on deception."

Beneath it, a folded map of the estate's underground tunnels trembled in her grip.

Her phone dinged in her pocket. It was one of the rare times that it ever really made a sound. It was a message from a foreign number, it was a link to a website for sign language. Her grip on her phone tightened and she breathed in relief.

"Omar," she whispered.

Darting her eyes around to make sure no one was anywhere in sight, she scrolled through the website but found nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing made any sense to her but she was sure the link had to be Omar or Mira. She wasn't sure.

---

Nightfall draped the rose garden in silver. Gia knelt by a thorny thicket, moonlight gilding the petals as she buried Adriana's note—Francesca meets Valentino. Boathouse. Midnight.—beneath the soil.

"You shouldn't dig graves for secrets here."

Adriana emerged from the shadows, her yellow sundress ghostly pale. A bruise bloomed where Francesca had gripped her.

Gia stood, brushing dirt from her hands. "How did you find out?" she couldn't help but ask.

Adriana just shrugged her shoulders like it was nothing, "I've known for a while." She glanced at her surrounding before whispering, "I don't think that they are the only ones."

"Who else?" Gia probed.

"I can't really tell right now. But you'll be the first to know once I find something promising."

"Why?" Gia couldn't help but ask. Her gray eyes swirling with confusion and curiousity.

Adriana glanced down at her shoes and contemplated her choice of words. "I don't know," she said with a sigh. "We all are going through one thing or another and I hope that you'd be our saviour. We all need saving. Including Alvan," she said the last part softly.

What about me? I need saving too

She wanted to say those words but held back and gave her a tight liped smile instead.

"He wasn't always this way. Alessia and Luca were the ones that somehow kept him grounded until they passed away. I think Capo knows something," she said with a shaky voice.

Gia could tell that she knew something, but she was scared. Scared of speaking. She understood that feeling all too well. "I'm here whenever you're ready," Gia said with a small smile. There was a full minute of silence before she spoke again.

"Your mother will skin us both," she said with a laugh.

"She already hates you." Adriana's voice wavered. "But you're the only one who doesn't lie."

A twig snapped.

Adriana vanished into the labyrinth.

Marcello's hulking silhouette materialized at the garden's edge, his gaze sweeping the roses.

Gia watched from the willow tree as Francesca slipped into the boathouse, Valentino's cigarette ember glowing in the dark. Silk rustled. Whispers coiled through the reeds.

A hand clamped her shoulder.

"Predictable," Alvan murmured, his breath warm against her ear.

She didn't turn. "And you're a hypocrite."

They heard a muffled gasp not far away. Then Marcello's laughter, low and cruel.

Alvan's grip tightened. "This changes nothing."

Gia smiled. "Everything changes. You just can't see it yet."

"We should get out of here," he said and walked away, pulling her with him.

She looked behind them for any signs of a threat but found none. She didn't know if he was suddenly being protective or simply just annoying.

He stopped only when they were at the foyer. "Go upstairs," he told her in that hard tone of his.

She looked him dead in the eyes and said, "Make me."

He almost pinched the bridge of his nose to contain his annoyance. He took a step close to her and she took a step backward. "Just listen to me," he said, his voice surprisingly soft.

She parted her lips to protest but he interrupted her.

"Please," he said, shocking both of them. "I have somewhere to be and I can't be worrying nonstop about your safety. Diego_" he wanted to say more but just sighed and cut himself off.

Those gray eyes were pulling him in, his eyes darted to her pouty lips and he had to take a step back before he did something he considered stupid.

"It's past midnight," her eyes flickered to the grandfather clock.

His lips curved in a small smirk, "Are you worried about my safety?"

She scowled at him to cover up the blush forming on her cheeks, "Get off your high horse."

He smiled. Genuinely smiled. She was simply adorable.

"I_ I should go back upstairs," she stuttered a little and tucked her hair behind her eyes and lifted her eyes to meet his gaze, the ghost of a smile on his lips and the look in his eyes that confused her. It made her heart flutter and she felt weird.

"Yes, you should," he said but none of them made any move to leave.

She gave him a tight liped smile and turned around to leave. She was almost at the stairs when he called her name. She turned to him.

He couldn't think of anything else to say, "Be careful," was all he could think of. He cringed in his head.

She gave him a lopsided smile, "You need it more than I do. Be careful out there," she said and hurried up the stairs, her heart hammering in her chest.

---

"You better have something important to say to me after making me come all this way," Alvan said coldly to the man as her entered his car and sat down at the passenger's seat.

"I am not any more ecstatic than you are about being here," the man said just as coldly. "I won't be here if it didn't have anything to do with my sister."

"I don't really care about your family problems, I have a lot on my plate right now."

"I know. I'm here because there are things Gia would never tell you and I just want to help her. I'm doing this for her," Omar said and took off the baseball hat on his head.