Luca’s POV
Romano’s office was the room in the Virelli estate that had always felt most specifically like him — large, ordered, the furniture dark and solid and chosen for function over aesthetics. The desk that had been his father’s before it was his. The bookshelves that held things he had actually consulted. The particular smell of old paper and wood polish and something underneath that Luca had associated with his father’s authority since he was old enough to understand what authority was.
He closed the door behind him.
Romano was standing at the window with his back to the room.
Elena sat in the chair beside the desk with her hands folded in her lap and her eyes on her husband’s back.
Luca stood.
Nobody spoke for a moment that lasted longer than moments usually lasted.
Then Ro
