Chapter 4

The coffin lid opened fully.

I gripped the edge and pushed myself upright.

The pressure on my chest made me cough. My broken ribs pulled at my lungs, and blood seeped through the bandages around my wrists.

Camilla screamed and stumbled into Damian's arms.

"That is impossible."

She stared at me.

"The car was already at the bottom of the reservoir."

She stopped the moment she heard herself.

Everyone in the church had heard her too.

Damian caught her wrist before she could say anything else.

Then he looked at me.

His hand was still near the ring he had placed on Camilla's finger. His fingers slowly closed until the metal pressed into his palm.

He studied my face and my bandaged wrists, trying to decide whether the woman in front of him was real.

"How did you..."

The words died in his throat.

His eyes moved to the church exits, the seats reserved for the Five Families, and the Vitale gunmen beside the coffin.

He was not worried about me.

He was counting how long I had been alive, how much I knew, and how many men I had brought.

Damian stepped back and knocked over a candle stand.

"Close the church doors."

"Collect every phone."

Russo gunmen moved at once.

The Vitale soldiers Nico had brought stepped out from both sides and formed a line in front of the coffin.

Weapons came up on both sides.

When Damian saw Nico, he understood that I had planned my return.

He could not admit to attempted murder in front of the Five Families.

"Do not let her fool you."

He pointed at the empty coffin behind me.

"No body was ever recovered. The search teams working the outer area happened to belong to the Vitale family."

"She was alive, but she did not contact the Commission or the Russo family. She let all of us prepare a funeral."

"Now she hides inside an empty coffin and waits until Camilla receives the ring."

Damian faced the Five Families and made his voice firmer with every sentence.

"This is not a survivor coming home."

"This is a performance planned by Serena and Nico."

"She wants to destroy my standing in front of the Five Families, then take the Russo family while pretending to be the victim."

Camilla covered her stomach and moved behind him.

"She waited until I had the ring."

"She wants to hurt me and my baby."

Damian looked straight at me.

"If you were alive, why did you stay away for three days?"

"Do you think you can lie to the Five Families and make fools of all of us?"

I stood beside the coffin and listened.

He did not ask why I was covered in injuries.

He did not ask how I had escaped the reservoir.

He did not even ask whether I was in pain.

Damian believed he had taken control of the room again. He raised one hand, and Russo gunmen moved around me.

"Get on your knees."

"Admit that the crash, the fake death, and this funeral were part of your plan to take power."

"If you refuse..."

He looked at the coffin behind me.

"Then this funeral will become real."

My finger touched the switch inside my ring.

"Damian, are you sure you want me to tell the whole truth here?"

He laughed in my face.

"Show us whatever else you forged."

I held his gaze.

"Remember that you asked for it."