“And if you do not leave this store in thirty seconds, I will have my security team remove you for trespassing.”

I looked up over the edge of the shelf.

Dominic was standing tall, his face pale but completely steady.

He was looking at his phone, which had just begun to flash with a new incoming call.

The caller ID showed his mother’s name.

Dominic slid his thumb across the screen.

He did not put the phone to his ear.

Instead, he pressed the speaker icon, his thumb trembling slightly against the glass.

“Dominic,” Caterina’s voice cut through the quiet bookstore, sharp and thin. “What is the meaning of this?”

“The hearing is stayed, Mother,” Dominic said.

“You went behind my back,” she said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “You used the family’s legal reserve without my signature.”

“I used my own,” Dominic said. “I still hold thirty percent of the voting shares, and I have just transferred the management of those shares to an independent trust.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.