CHAPTER 6
Marcello Bellandi read the Commission summons twice and tore it in half.
The paper made a small sound in the library at Bellandi Villa.
No one mistook it for a small decision.
"We will not sail to an island controlled by men who have surrounded our streets," he said.
Sofia stood across from her father's desk with rain drying at the shoulders of her coat.
The villa had once belonged to a judge who designed every public room to make visitors feel received.
Warm wood, old paintings, deep chairs, lamps instead of hard ceiling light.
Under lockdown, the warmth became camouflage.
Armed men occupied the hallways. Steel shutters waited inside carved window frames.
Roman's crews had converted the wine cellar corridor into a secure communications station.
Home and fortress were often the same place in Black Harbor. The difference was whether a woman had been given a key.
"Refusal abandons Compact protection," Sofia said. "The Commission will read it as an admission."
"The Commission can read what it likes."
"City Hall will read it too. So will the Port Authority, the unions, and every lender Cross Maritime is calling. If we refuse neutral review, we become the family hiding behind guns while Vittorio's body is still warm."
Roman stood near the fireplace, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a glass he had not tasted. His crews had found Carlo DeLuca's car near the river, wiped clean. No sign of DeLuca.
"Breakwater is not neutral," he said. "The Nerovellis use it as a safehouse."
"The Commission controls the summit chamber. Both families will be searched at the launch."
"Alessio Nerovelli does not need a weapon to kill someone."
The sentence should not have made heat touch her spine.
Sofia ignored it.
"Neither do you," she said. "That is not an argument."
Roman's mouth flattened.
Emilio remained seated at the side table with a fresh copy of the summons open before him.
He had spent the afternoon contacting judges, port lawyers, and Commission intermediaries.
Every report returned the same conclusion: the old rules were bending but not yet broken.
Breakwater was the only place where both families could appear armed with authority rather than rifles.
"Send Sofia," Emilio said.
Roman turned. "No."
"She is chief negotiator and counsel. The allegation depends partly on her credential. She can challenge the evidence directly."
"Alone?"
"With a Bellandi legal detail. You remain in South Reach where they cannot trap the heir and the negotiator in one place."
The suggestion was logical. It was also exactly wrong.
Sofia looked at Emilio. "Roman has to attend."
"The summons requests ruling representatives, not every person accused."
"Someone used his identity. If he hides, the false authorization becomes more believable."
"If he attends, Alessio may execute him in the summit chamber."
"Then Alessio destroys the Commission and declares war in front of every witness who matters. He is not that reckless."
Roman's eyes narrowed. "You sound certain."
"I pay attention to enemies who affect our port."
"Is that all you pay attention to?"
Her brother knew her too well to miss the fraction of delay before she answered.
"Do you want my legal analysis or a confession invented for your entertainment?"
"At the moment, I want to know whether the man whose father was killed believes you helped do it."
"He will believe the evidence until I break it."
Marcello pushed the torn summons aside. "You assume he can be reasoned with."
"I assume he wants the truth enough to delay revenge. His men stopped at our commercial perimeter. They did not enter the residential blocks."
"A threat dressed as discipline," her father said.
"Discipline is the only reason no one is dead in South Reach. We should recognize it before Roman's captains test it."
Roman set down the untouched glass. "My captains will follow orders."
"Then give them the order to hold while we go to Breakwater."
"We?"
"You and me. Father remains here. Emilio attends as counsel."
Emilio's expression tightened almost imperceptibly. "That concentrates too much of Bellandi leadership on the island."
"It demonstrates we are not afraid of the evidence."
"We should be afraid of men in grief."
Sofia turned toward him fully. "You taught me fear is only useful when it identifies the correct threat. The correct threat is not a summit. It is the person who can place my code and Roman's on a killing neither of us authorized."
The room held still.
Emilio had no immediate answer.
Sofia felt something cold settle into place. Not proof. Not even accusation. Only the awareness that he had tried twice to separate her from Roman and send her toward the Nerovellis as the sole Bellandi voice.
Perhaps he wanted her protected from her brother's temper.
Perhaps he wanted Roman protected from Alessio.
Perhaps.
Marcello looked from one child to the other. His authority had shaped their lives so completely that even his silences felt like orders waiting to be understood.
"You attend together," he said at last. "Emilio goes as counsel. Twelve men to the launch. The Commission may reduce the escort from there."
Roman inclined his head.
Sofia did not. "And the crews?"
"Hold current lines. No one fires unless fired upon."
"No action against Nerovelli property while we are on the island."
Her father's gaze sharpened. "Do not draft my commands in front of me."
"Then make them complete."
Roman looked away to hide the beginning of a smile.
Marcello did not smile. "No action against Nerovelli property while you are on the island."
"Thank you."
"That was not permission to be pleased with yourself."
"I will record the distinction."
Emilio gathered his papers. "We leave in forty minutes. Sofia, bring the original preservation copy and nothing stored on a network device."
She watched him carefully. "I never told you the copy was preserved offline."
A beat.
"You told me you had preserved it."
Had she?
Sofia replayed Sunday night and could not be certain. Emilio had been her mentor for years. He knew her methods. Of course he would assume she had made an offline copy.
He smiled with weary affection. "You have never trusted a network you did not personally cross-examine."
The explanation fit.
That was becoming the problem.
Sofia left the library to change and retrieve the redwell folder.
At the turn of the hall, she realized she had left her scarf on the chair beside Emilio.
She nearly returned, then heard him speaking softly behind the closed doors and decided a scarf was not worth interrupting whatever final call he needed to make before Breakwater.
* * *
After the hallway fell silent, Emilio unlocked his phone. A message from Atlas Civic Partners waited on the screen.
He read it once, deleted it, emptied the trash, and turned the phone facedown.