"I did see Seraphina getting out of a car with the Valenti Family's senior captains. Late at night. Near the waterfront." She paused, letting the image settle like a stain. "But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe Seraphina really did earn her place through her own scores. We shouldn't assume the worst."
The deflection was surgical. By defending me, she condemned me. By saying maybe she earned it, she planted the seed that perhaps she hadn't.
Giancarlo's expression was unreadable, but Salvatore's lip curled.
"Don't make excuses for her, Rosalia." A girl from our year stepped closer, her voice dripping with righteous contempt. "She won't even let anyone see her scores. If she had nothing to hide, why the secrecy? She's guilty. She knows it, and she doesn't want anyone else to find out."
Another voice chimed in, sharper. "You're too kind to her, Rosalia. You always have been. A woman like Seraphina, with that scheming mind? She'd sell her own blood to get ahead. Don't let her use you."
I stood in the shadow of the corridor and listened to the architecture of my own destruction.