Chapter 6
Sophie wanted cake.
Of course she did.
The adults had destroyed enough of the evening.
Evelyn took her back toward the reception for twenty minutes with two trusted guards.
No Preston.
No Diane.
When the door closed, I looked at both of them.
“Now we discuss what happens next.”
Preston folded his arms.
“You’re going to punish me for protecting my mother.”
Wrong.
“You were protecting the leverage you had over her.”
His jaw tightened.
Diane whispered:
“He did love me.”
“I know.”
Again.
Love and coercion coexist more often than comfortable people admit.
Preston loved his mother.
He also resented her.
Thomas had spent his final years feeding that resentment.
Every time Preston felt overlooked, he remembered Evelyn.
The secret daughter given to Castellano wealth.
Every time Diane refused him a favor, he thought:
You gave her everything.
What did you sacrifice for me?
Diane tried compensating.
Too much.
Money.
Connections.
Access.
Defending Preston when others criticized him.
The secret became a hidden accounting system.
One child had been given away.
Therefore the other child was owed.
That logic poisoned both.
I asked Preston:
“Did Evelyn ever take anything from you?”
“No.”
“Did she know?”
“No.”
“Did I know?”
“No.”
“Then why has she been paying a debt in your head for nine years?”
He stared.
There.
He hated the question because it made the unfairness obvious.
Diane whispered:
“I should have told him differently.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You should have stopped paying him for knowing.”
Her face tightened.
Also true.
Fear made her generous in the wrong direction.
Every favor taught Preston that the secret had value.
Eventually he protected the secret because exposing it would end the payments.
Not cash necessarily.
Status.
Influence.
Maternal guilt.
A mother trying to prove she had not abandoned one child by surrendering to the other.
It never worked.
Preston remained angry.
Diane remained frightened.
May you like
Evelyn remained uninformed.
Perfect equilibrium built from misery.
