Chapter 13
Edmund closed his eyes.
Cesare’s voice became low.
“Balcony.”
The butler opened them.
“Last spring.”
Avice’s third birthday.
A crowded afternoon.
Music.
Cake.
Family.
At one point Avice disappeared for six minutes.
Everyone believed she wandered toward the gardens.
Edmund found her near the upstairs balcony.
Cesare remembered the panic.
He remembered firing two guards afterward.
He remembered Julian telling him his security had become sloppy.
Edmund spoke.
“I unlocked the door.”
Cesare’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Mr. Julian asked me to.”
Julian laughed.
“Here we go.”
Edmund looked at him.
“You said Avice needed to be found somewhere dangerous.”
Avice stared.
Cesare’s breathing changed.
Edmund continued.
“She was never supposed to go outside.”
“I was supposed to find her first.”
Julian’s mouth hardened.
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
“No harm.”
Edmund looked toward Avice.
“Not because of you.”
The sentence landed.
Julian’s smile disappeared.
Cesare understood.
The birthday incident had been a rehearsal of a different kind.
Not a physical attack.
A test.
How quickly would Cesare panic?
Who would he blame?
How many guards would he dismiss?
Would capos whisper that he was becoming unstable around Avice?
Julian had studied his father’s emotional reflex for months.
Maybe longer.
Vanessa looked disgusted.
“You told me tonight was the first time.”
Julian shrugged.
“You didn't need history.”
She laughed bitterly.
“There it is again.”
Cesare looked toward Julian.
“How long?”
Julian’s eyes hardened.
“How long what?”
“How long have you been building your life around punishing me?”
The question hit differently.
Julian stared.
Then answered.
“Since Marco died.”
Silence.
Avice looked down.
Julian saw.
His face tightened.
For a second, shame.
Then pride buried it.
Cesare’s voice softened.
“You were thirty-one.”
“You were my son.”
Julian’s eyes flashed.
“And you stopped seeing me.”
There it was.
Raw.
Cesare listened.
Julian continued.
“You looked at me and saw the one who survived.”
His voice roughened.
“Do you know what that feels like?”
Cesare did not answer immediately.
“No.”
Julian laughed.
“Of course not.”
Cesare looked toward Marco’s chair.
Then Avice.
Then back.
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“I only know what I made it feel like.”
Julian stopped.
That answer had not been expected.
Cesare continued.
“I failed you.”
A pause.
“But you failed yourself afterward.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“You turned pain into permission.”
“For lying.”
“For using Vanessa.”
“For using Ethan.”
“For making Edmund hurt Avice.”
“And for placing a child near a balcony just to study my fear.”
Cesare’s expression hardened.
“That belongs to you.”
Julian said nothing.
The distinction stood between them.
Cause.
Choice.
Then Avice spoke.
“Uncle Julian?”
Everyone turned.
Her voice was tiny.
“Did you want Grandpa to be scared?”
Julian stared at her.
A child had reduced months of strategy to one honest question.
His mouth opened.
Nothing came.
Avice continued.
“Because he was.”
Cesare’s eyes closed briefly.
Julian looked away.
For the first time, shame reached him where anger could not.
May you like
But it did not save him.
It only made the next choice his.
