“Why don’t you sit down?” I suggested. “Bella can you bring us something to drink. And Knight needs to eat.”

He nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Sit down.” He pointed Seraphina to a sofa. “Tell us why are you here with a suitcase.”

She fidgeted with her wedding ring. “I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t.” She looked at her brother, then me.

“Why not?” Knight asked. “Are you saying you left Brandon?”

“I did.” She jutted her chin forward. “I’m not going back to that house.”

I saw the furrow on Knight’s brow start to form. They had had this conversation before.

“Can you tell us why?” I suggested. “Something to go on.”

She sat back abruptly. “Ohh.” Her hand moved to her stomach. “A hard kick,” she explained. She buried her face in her hands. “And Crew isn’t here.”

I stood to find Bella and closed the drawing room doors behind me. I walked over to the chair closest to Seraphina and sat next to her.

I could see the pain she was in. I could feel it. I didn’t know how to be a sister. How to be the comforting type. I couldn’t fathom what Kimble told me that somewhere in Philadelphia my half-sister existed. Knight’s sister was here now. She needed us. I had to push out the idea that I might have a sister. It didn’t do anyone any good and for all I knew she was some woman’s concocted story to extort my father for money. It was useless information in the middle of our current crisis.

I eyed him, hoping he would yield this to me for just a few minutes.

“Seraphina, what exactly happened? Does your husband know you left?” I asked.

She nodded. “We got in a huge fight. He’s been following the story about Crew’s disappearance. Saying horrible things. Awful things. And when Knight was arrested yesterday, it got worse. They didn’t offer me support. It was the first time I could just show my grief and not hide it, you know? And they took it and slapped me with it.” She closed her eyes. “Louis did not offer to help. Margaret didn’t offer to call Mother. Wouldn’t a decent person do that for her daughter-in-law?” She shook her head. “I feel like a surrogate in that house, and it’s not even their baby.”

“What did you say to them?” Knight interrupted.

The emotions were raw and intense. He needed to be gentle with her. This was no longer the girl in the cute white cocktail dress dancing at her arranged engagement party. This was a woman trapped and scared.

“I told Brandon I was leaving.” She was quiet, but firm.

“Did he try to stop you?”

“No. I think that’s what scares me the most. What if he did have something to do with this?” she asked. “What if he knows?”

I put an arm around her just as Bella walked in with a tray of tea. One of the kitchen staff members followed behind her with a plate of sandwiches. We paused our conversation until they were out of the room again.

Knight pushed off the couch. “Damn it.”

“What?”

“Not one fucking family has come forward. This doesn’t make sense. No one operates like this, Kennedy. No one.”

I poured a cup of tea for his sister. “You’re right. They don’t.” I placed the pot on the tray. “I think we have to start looking outside of the firms.”

“And how big does the circle go?”

I exhaled. “I think I need to start with the Crescent Towers project.”

He crossed the room. “Do you know something?”

“No. But it’s the most important project I have. The legislation. The contractors in the state. It’s huge. It touches everything. The reach is bigger than the families.”

He rubbed the back of his head. He still hadn’t had a chance to shave. He looked sexy with beginnings of a beard. I knew it wouldn’t last past dinner. It made his eyes seem darker. His stare harder.

“We need Renee over here. And I’ll call Paul.”

I looked at Seraphina. What were we going to do with her and the fallout?

Tags: Violet Paige Sins of Knight Mafia Trilogy Crime
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