Chapter 7
Ethan’s letters filled an entire dining table.
Five years.
Birthdays.
Christmas.
First day of school.
Photographs from Rome.
Vienna.
Marseille.
One envelope held a pressed blue flower Emily had found outside Prague because Ethan loved blue.
Unopened.
All of them.
Ethan stood beside the table.
Silent.
Emily did not force him to touch anything.
Tilda remained close.
Ryan sat across the room under guard.
Natalie stood with Lucas.
Patricia had been brought in last.
The moment she saw the envelopes, she sighed.
“Really?”
Emily looked at her.
Patricia continued.
“This is what we're doing now?”
“Five years of letters.”
“Paper.”
Ethan flinched.
Patricia saw.
Did not care.
“You think paper makes up for absence?”
Emily's expression hardened.
Ryan looked at Ethan.
For the first time, shame appeared.
Small.
Late.
Still real.
“Mom.”
Patricia turned.
“You knew he cried for these.”
“So?”
“He thought Emily forgot him.”
“That was useful.”
Ethan looked at his grandmother.
His voice shook.
“Why?”
Patricia answered immediately.
“Because you were becoming weak.”
Emily stood.
Patricia kept going.
“You'd sit by the front door.”
“You'd ask every morning.”
“You'd scream when Ryan left for meetings because you thought everyone was going away.”
Ethan started crying.
Patricia sighed.
“There.”
“That.”
She pointed.
“Six years old and still doing it.”
Emily moved between them.
“Enough.”
Patricia smiled.
“See?”
She looked at Ethan around Emily.
“You cry and Mommy saves you.”
Emily's voice lowered.
“Yes.”
Patricia's smile faded.
“Yes.”
Emily repeated.
“When my son cries because someone hurts him, I will save him.”
Silence.
“He is six.”
“He is allowed to need me.”
Patricia scoffed.
“You'll destroy him.”
“No.”
Emily looked toward Ryan.
“You already tried.”
Ryan lowered his eyes.
Natalie rolled hers.
Emily turned.
“You have something to say?”
Natalie shifted Lucas higher.
“At least Ryan stayed.”
Emily stared.
Natalie smiled.
“That's why Ethan liked me at first.”
Ethan shook his head.
Natalie laughed.
“Oh, don't lie.”
She looked at Emily.
“He used to follow me around.”
“Asked if I'd make pancakes.”
“Wanted bedtime stories.”
Her smile sharpened.
“Then I got pregnant.”
Emily understood before she finished.
Natalie continued.
“And suddenly he was unbearable.”
“Jealous.”
“Needy.”
“Always asking whether Lucas would steal his daddy too.”
Ethan covered his face.
Natalie laughed.
“So Ryan taught him sharing.”
Emily looked at Ryan.
“How?”
No answer.
Natalie answered for him.
“First the toys.”
“Then the closet.”
“Then the room.”
Her eyes gleamed.
“And when he still wouldn't stop whining…”
She glanced toward the yard.
“Outside.”
Tilda stared.
“You enjoyed this.”
Natalie shrugged.
“He made my baby miserable.”
“Lucas is eight months old.”
“Exactly.”
She looked at Ethan.
“He should have known better than to wake him.”
Emily’s voice became cold.
“What happened when he woke Lucas?”
Natalie smiled.
“He ate outside.”
“What?”
“Dinner.”
Natalie shrugged.
“Dogs sleep through noise better.”
One bodyguard turned away.
Emily stepped closer.
Natalie kept talking, convinced cruelty sounded like honesty.
“You weren't here.”
“Somebody had to teach him the new order.”
Emily stared.
“New order.”
“Yes.”
“Lucas comes first.”
“Ryan comes first.”
“Sunday Ryan becomes head.”
“And Ethan?”
Natalie looked at the boy.
“Learns.”
Emily almost hit her.
Almost.
Then Ethan spoke.
“Lucas isn't Dad's.”
Silence.
Natalie froze.
Ryan stared at him.
Patricia's face changed.
Emily slowly looked at Ethan.
“What?”
The boy immediately looked terrified.
Natalie rushed forward.
“You little liar!”
Emily stepped between them.
Natalie stopped.
Ethan backed into Tilda.
Emily crouched.
“Why did you say that?”
He was shaking.
“I heard her.”
Natalie's face went white.
“He doesn't know what he's saying.”
Ethan continued:
“She talked to a man.”
“When?”
“Night.”
Natalie snapped:
“Stop.”
Emily looked at her.
Natalie shut her mouth.
“What man?”
Ethan shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“What did she say?”
His voice became tiny.
“She said Ryan thinks Lucas is his.”
The room went completely still.
Ryan looked at Natalie.
She looked away.
Emily did not care who Lucas's biological father was for its own sake.
The baby was innocent.
But she cared what the lie meant.
Natalie had tied herself to Ryan while privately deceiving him.
So who was she actually loyal to?
Emily stood.
“Who is Lucas’s father?”
Natalie laughed nervously.
“This is ridiculous.”
Ryan crossed the room.
A guard stopped him.
“Natalie.”
She stared at him.
“Answer me.”
“No.”
Wrong.
Ryan's face changed.
Patricia stood.
“Enough.”
Emily looked at her.
Patricia was not shocked.
Again.
She knew.
Emily smiled faintly.
“Of course.”
Ryan turned toward his mother.
“You knew?”
Patricia said nothing.
His expression collapsed.
Emily looked between them.
Natalie's affair was not personal chaos.
It was another layer Patricia had kept hidden.
Then Ethan whispered:
“Grandma calls the man Mr. Corvino.”
Every adult in the room went still.
Emily looked at Patricia.
The same Corvino mark from the cellar.
Sunday's supposed peace partner.
And suddenly Emily understood why Natalie had been placed beside Ryan at the head of the table.
May you like
She had never been Ryan’s reward.
She had been Corvino’s access point.
