Chapter 11
We abolished the First Son Understanding.
Not with ceremony.
At dinner.
Seven senior capos.
Two relatives.
Celia declined to attend.
Good.
Elias was not invited.
Better.
I played Father’s recording.
Then said:
“No child is an heir until an adult chooses responsibility.”
One capo objected.
“What if something happens to you?”
“Then adults solve it.”
Another asked:
“What about Elias?”
“He is five.”
Silence.
Apparently the room needed more.
“He likes dinosaurs.”
Rafe coughed to hide a laugh.
Good.
“His current qualification for leadership is that he can count to forty if nobody interrupts him.”
That finally broke the tension.
But I was serious.
No childhood grooming.
No seating children beside capos to normalize future command.
No title.
No “little boss.”
No promises.
If Elias wanted nothing to do with Alderbourne at eighteen, twenty-five, forty—
May you like
good.
A family that requires a child’s future to feel stable is already unstable.
