"What card do they have? And you know what it is, don’t you?"

Another wave of silence descended over the dining room as Lucian studied the curious look on Ashley’s face.

Of course, he knew.

If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have spiraled the way he did.

Lucian drew a deep breath, trying to find the words. But his voice wouldn’t come.

How could he say the things he needed to say when his entire wiring made it impossible to say them?

His throat bobbed. Before he could manage anything, Ashley spoke. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"It’s okay if you can’t tell me right now. But I’d want to hear it when you’re ready."

Surprise crept slowly onto his face as he looked back at her and found the subtle, warm smile she was giving him. Ashley nodded, reassuring him without a word.

"So?" she hummed, her voice deliberately lighter to keep the mood from sinking. "What do you want me to do? Find out who’s conspiring behind your back?"

"No," he shook his head. "That would be too dangerous, even for you."

"It’s dangerous because this is Dominion’s internal affairs," she said. "But if they don’t know who’s looking into it, it wouldn’t be that dangerous, would it?"

Lucian huffed faintly. "I want you to find out how bad it is... how deep this poison has gone."

"Okay, okay," she nodded, her voice taking on an almost musical lilt. But in her head, she was already thinking several steps ahead.

As she had noted before, Lucian was not the type to seek help outside of Dominion. Even within it, he typically resolved problems with whatever he already had.

For Lucian to reach out at all, she couldn’t afford to disappoint him. Because this wasn’t just helplessness. It was an admission that whatever this was... might be bigger than him.

Or rather, it might be the biggest crisis he had ever had to face.

Lucian watched her quiet, assured smile and felt some of the tension leave him. He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it, grounding himself in the real stakes.

Her. And Primo.

Because somewhere in the back of his mind, if this problem turned out to be beyond resolution, he already had one answer ready.

Years ago, Lucian had sought power — everything Dominion represented — to put himself in a place where no one could touch him. But his priorities had shifted. He no longer wanted a place beyond reach.

All he wanted now was to protect her and Primo.

Even if it meant going up against the very system and power he had built that had sheltered him for years.

*****

Once Primo came downstairs, Ashley sent the father and son to the living room to wait for her. Primo had homework, and Lucian was far better suited to help with it than she was.

While the two settled in, Ashley cleared the dining table and washed the dishes. There were only a few, so it didn’t take long. When she was done, she paused as her phone on the counter had lit up.

"Hmm?" she hummed, pulling off her apron and draping it over the counter.

She picked up the phone and furrowed her brows. Just seeing the name made her want to put it back down.

The message had come from someone she had no desire to hear from.

Scott. Marshal Di Carpio’s right-hand man. The person who would carry out Marshal’s orders without question, no matter how inhumane they were. A literal hellhound.

And if Scott was sending her messages and leaving missed calls, it meant Marshal had told him to.

"What does he want?" she whispered, eyes cutting toward the living room.

The house was cozy, but small. From where she stood at the kitchen counter, she had a clear view of both the dining area and the living room. Lucian sat on the edge of the couch, arms resting on his knees. Primo was on the floor with a cushion beneath him, arms spread over the coffee table, working through his homework under Lucian’s quiet supervision.

"Why is it that the moment I start to appreciate how normal my life has become, these people suddenly remind me they exist?" she muttered, clicking her tongue as she turned her attention back to the phone.

It had been a while since anyone from the Di Carpio side had reached out.

She hadn’t heard from them since the charity event. She hadn’t known what was happening over there and hadn’t particularly wanted to know.

Even so, now that she thought about it, the Di Carpios had been suspiciously quiet. Marshal was always like that, but whenever he went silent, it unsettled her. Because silence from him usually meant he was planning something.

She opened Scott’s messages.

[Miss Ashley, your father is asking you to come home.]

[He said you must, as soon as you read this.]

Ashley snorted at the bluntness of it. Scott had clearly sent this exactly as Marshal had dictated it — no filter, no softening.

Did they think she was still the same person she used to be? Did they really think they still had that kind of hold over her?

"They’re really underestimating the title of Madam of Dominion," she whispered. "From what I know, the Madam of Dominion used to command real authority."

She had heard very little about the previous matriarch, but she knew the woman had held the same standing as the Don himself. It was only because the current Madam was someone as seemingly foolish as her that people had grown comfortable dismissing the position.

Ashley was about to put the phone down when another message came through.

[Miss Ashley, your father may not have said this himself, but I also think you should distance yourself from Dominion for now. Our intel has picked up signs of an internal problem, and every organization Dominion has ever crossed will be circling the moment they show the first sign of weakness.]

[It may not be safe there anymore.]

Ashley arched a brow. These last two, she could tell, were Scott’s own words. They sounded like him.

"Got wind of this, did they?" she murmured, lifting her gaze to Lucian and Primo across the room. "Funny. Since when has Marshal’s intel been this sharp without Ghost?"

She narrowed her eyes, tongue running slowly along her inner cheek. "Or were they tipped off?"