Chapter 16
Ramona remained beyond the security line for almost a minute.
Nobody moved.
Lucy’s hand stayed inside Alina’s.
Lorenzo watched his wife.
Not Ramona.
That was deliberate.
Old Lorenzo would have made the decision already.
Remove her.
Increase the guards.
End the problem before anyone else had to feel uncertain.
Instead, he waited.
Alina finally looked toward Ramona.
“Not today.”
Ramona heard.
Her face changed.
Not anger.
Not relief.
Something quieter.
She nodded once.
Then turned toward the foundation office.
Lucy watched her leave.
“Aunt Ramona?”
Alina looked down.
“Yes.”
“She pushed.”
“Yes.”
Lucy touched her own elbow.
The scrape had healed months ago.
The memory had not disappeared with it.
“Why she here?”
“She had work to deliver.”
Lucy frowned.
“Bad people have work?”
Lorenzo almost answered.
Alina squeezed Lucy’s hand.
“People can do bad things and still have other parts of their lives.”
Lucy thought.
“That’s confusing.”
“Yes.”
Good.
It was.
They stayed through the charity match.
Lucy climbed onto the platform twice more.
The second time she released Alina’s hand.
Not Lorenzo’s idea.
Not therapy homework.
She wanted the railing.
That was all.
Back at the Greenwich house, Lorenzo waited until Lucy was asleep.
Then:
“Do you want Ramona banned from the club?”
Alina looked at him.
He caught himself.
Wrong question.
“What do you want?”
“Different.”
“Yes.”
She sat at the kitchen table.
For several seconds she said nothing.
Then:
“I don’t know.”
Lorenzo nodded.
That answer still made him uncomfortable.
Good.
Alina looked toward the dark window.
“She rejected Marcus’s idea about Lucy.”
“Yes.”
“Then she pushed me while I was holding her.”
“Yes.”
“She created money for Lucy.”
“Yes.”
“Then hid it from both of us.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what I hate?”
Lorenzo waited.
“That every fact makes the next one harder.”
He understood.
If Ramona had wanted only money, easier.
If she had hated Lucy, easier.
If she had planned the shove, easier.
But she had protected children with stolen money.
Refused one plan involving Lucy.
Then endangered Lucy herself.
People were harder than categories.
Alina continued.
“I’m not ready to see her.”
“Okay.”
“But I don’t want you deciding I never will.”
Lorenzo felt the sentence.
“I won’t.”
She looked at him.
“Don’t promise too quickly.”
Fair.
He tried again.
“I’ll try not to.”
Better.
Three days later Claire forwarded a request.
Ramona wanted permission to send Alina a letter.
Not Lucy.
Alina stared at the message for a long time.
Lorenzo said nothing.
She noticed.
“You have an opinion.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I don’t want her near you.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
No.
The question was whether Alina wanted the letter.
Not whether Lorenzo trusted Ramona.
Alina approved it.
The envelope arrived through Claire.
Unopened.
No flowers.
No gift.
No apology delivered through somebody else.
Just paper.
Alina placed it in a kitchen drawer.
For eleven days she did not open it.
Lorenzo never mentioned it.
That was harder than it looked.
On the twelfth night, Alina sat alone at the table and broke the seal.
The first line said:
I knew exactly how frightened Lucy was when I pushed you.
Alina stopped reading.
For that night.
The letter remained open on the table.
Lorenzo came home.
Saw it.
Then walked past.
No question.
May you like
Alina looked after him.
That mattered.
