Page 65 of Ricardo

“I am absolutely not laughing.”

“For a lawyer, you are a horrible liar.”

She lets a laugh loose.

“Neither of you was very diplomatic, either,” he says. “Which is odd coming from you, Ricardo.”

He turns his gaze on me.

How can I explain to him just what seeing Julia sitting on the floor and talking about her parents in that small voice made me feel?

How can I explain to him that hearing the good judge and his perfect wife criticize Julia made me want to smash their heads in?

I keep it simple. “Let’s just say I've gotten a little bit of an inside look into the lives of the O'Briens, and diplomatic is not something I think I can manage where they're concerned.”

Mario studies me for a moment, but he does not press. Whatever he sees in my face must be enough. “I see.”

Victoria looks toward the west gallery, her expression cooling again. “They speak about her as if she has to be managed,” she says in disgust.

I take a slow breath and let it out through my nose.

Then my attention drifts back across the ballroom to Patrick O’Brien.

He stands near the mayor now, laughing at something. Suzanne is beside him, one hand resting lightly on his arm. A beautiful couple. Well-matched. The kind of people who understand their places in rooms like this.

They do not look cruel.

Cruelty in families is rarely as dramatic as strangers imagine it to be. Often, it is polished. Reasonable. Concerned. Masked as something other. It wears good jewelry and hosts a lovely dinner party.

It conceals control with words like guidance and experience.

Mario is silent beside me, his gaze still on Patrick O’Brien.

Victoria takes one measured sip from her glass. “I suddenly understand Julia a little better.”

“So do I,” Mario says.

I hear what he doesn’t say as well.

Mario hired Julia because she was qualified, yes. Because she was recommended by Dante, yes. Because her father might one day be useful, also yes. My brother is sentimental in ways he denies, but he is never careless in business.

Tonight, the equation changes.

Patrick O’Brien is still useful.

He is also a man to be handled with more caution than before.

I will deal with him if I must.

I will use him if it serves the family.

And that is all.

For tonight, I let the subject go because Patrick O’Brien has already taken more of my attention than he deserves, and because the night still has obligations left in it.

Chapter Seven

Julia