"Honestly, Mia, you're always checking up on Xavier. You're suffocating him. Do you really think any of us would let someone ruin his life? Vanessa and Xavier have been inseparable since they were children. If he wanted to leave you, he would have done it a long time ago."
Colino paused, then added with the casual air of a man delivering a death sentence over dessert: "Besides, Xavier has already promised Vanessa that the Salvatore Family and her people will be merging operations. A full syndicate alliance. Two families becoming one. So it would be in your best interest to accommodate her. That's the least you can do as the Donna of this house."
My eyes widened.
A syndicate merger. The Salvatore Family of the Jade Quarter, folded into another operation entirely. And I, the Donna, the wife of the Don, had not been told. Had not been consulted. Had not even been informed that such negotiations existed.
Colino realized, a beat too late, that his mouth had outrun his authority. The color drained from his face. He fell silent, his eyes darting to the others around the table, searching for rescue. Uneasy glances ricocheted across the room like stray bullets.
No one spoke.