“I’m sorry, Fay,” Alessi says again, leaning across to me and reaching out his hand to take mine, true sorrow on his face. “You are a lovely girl, I like you very much. I know this cannot be easy to hear, but it is…business.”
“I’m sorry,” Daniel says, putting his hand out to stop Alessi’s from reaching me. “What, precisely, are you trying to imply here by bringing Fay into it?”
Alessi blinks at Damoe; and then sits back in his chair, glaring at his nephew for being difficult when we all know precisely what he means. Alessi just doesn’t want to say it aloud – that if my father is dead the marriage to me will, of course, no longer be worth anything at all, strategically.
“This is ridiculous,” Kent snaps next to me, ripping his hand out from beneath Natalia’s, but Alessi and Daniel ignore
