“To control me,” Giovanni said, pouring two glasses of amber liquid from a crystal decanter.

“He knows I stepped away from the family.”

“He thinks it is a trick to put him off guard.”

“He believes as long as I am alive, his position as boss is temporary.”

“And if he has my son, he has the ultimate leverage.”

“He wants to force me back into the syndicate, or eliminate me entirely.”

“But why now?” I asked.

“Because he found out about Luca’s illness,” Giovanni said.

“He knew we would have to bring him to a public hospital in Boston.”

“It was the first time in a year we were vulnerable.”

Giovanni handed me a glass, but I set it down on the edge of the desk.

“You told me you were done with them,” I said, my voice shaking.

“I am done,” he said, looking down at his glass.

“I have been dismantling the operations for months.”

“Marcus didn’t like that.”

“He saw his empire shrinking, and he blamed me.”

I rubbed my temples, trying to process the sheer scale of the danger we were in.