EPISODE 4: FAMILY SECRETS ## CHAPTER 1: THE INTERROGATION Dinner is a battlefield. Francesca commandeers the conversation from the first course, peppering Elena with questions that feel more like cross-examination. "How did you two meet? Through Marco, yes? The brother with the gambling problem?" Elena keeps her voice even. "Marco introduced us. I don't know anything about gambling." "Of course you don't. The Castellanos are excellent at keeping secrets." Francesca sips her wine—too fast, Elena notes. "Like the secret that your father nearly bankrupted the vineyard through sheer incompetence." "That's not a secret. It's public record." "And yet you sold yourself to my brother to fix it. How... entrepreneurial." "Francesca." Dante's voice cuts across the table. "That's enough." "I'm just getting to know my new sister-in-law. She should know what she's married into." Francesca turns back to Elena. "Has he told you about the others?" "The others?" "The women. Before you. There have been several. All discarded when they became inconvenient. My brother collects wives the way other men collect cars—briefly, intensely, then on to the next model." Elena feels her stomach drop. Wives. Plural. She looks at Dante. His expression is frozen. "Francesca—" "Two divorces. Neither discussed in polite company. The first lasted eighteen months. The second barely six. Both women signed NDAs and took generous settlements." Francesca's...