Chapter 17
Six months later, we returned to the lake house.
Elena suggested it.
I understood why.
Some places keep power only because nobody returns after the lie ends.
The study looked smaller than I remembered.
Maybe because I was no longer watching an edited video of myself from across three years of grief.
Isla ran straight to the window.
Nico followed.
They argued about which tree was taller.
Elena stood beside the desk where Vivienne once placed the forged letter in front of her.
I approached.
“You okay?”
“No.”
Honest.
Then:
“But I will be.”
Also honest.
She opened her purse.
Inside was the forged letter.
I stared.
“You kept it.”
“For too long.”
She placed it on the desk.
No ceremony.
No fire.
No speech.
Just paper.
Then Isla ran in.
“What’s that?”
Elena looked at me.
I answered.
“A lie.”
Isla frowned.
“Grandma Vivienne?”
“Yes.”
She thought about that for a moment.
Then shrugged.
“Can we go outside?”
I laughed.
“Yeah.”
She ran away.
Elena looked at me.
“That was easier for her.”
“She’s smarter than us.”
“Probably.”
We went outside.
The twins were chasing each other near the lake. Nico stumbled, got up, and kept running. Isla yelled that he cheated. He yelled back that there were no rules.
Elena laughed.
I stood beside her.
Three years earlier, I believed she abandoned me.
She believed I rejected her.
Isla grew up hearing about a father who did not know she existed.
Nico grew up hearing about parents who were gone.
All because one woman believed bloodlines mattered more than choice and control mattered more than love.
I could not recover those three years.
I stopped pretending I could.
What I could do was protect the years ahead from being stolen the same way.
Isla came running toward me and wrapped herself around my legs.
Exactly like the wedding.
Only this time no champagne glass shattered.
No ballroom went silent.
No aunt reached for her.
“Daddy Cassian!”
I looked down.
“Yes?”
She pointed toward Nico.
“He says you like him more.”
Nico shouted from the grass, “No I didn’t!”
Elena covered her face, laughing.
I lifted Isla into my arms.
“Nobody has to compete for me.”
She looked at Nico.
“You hear that?”
He nodded seriously.
Good.
That was the lesson I wanted them to inherit.
Not succession.
Not fear.
Not who mattered more.
May you like
Vivienne had spent years deciding who was allowed to belong to whom.
Now both my children were running across the lawn, Elena was beside me by choice, and nobody in the Morelli family had the power to separate us again.
