Chapter 7
Marcus called it modernization.
Of course.
“Old staff become possessive.”
I stared at him.
“Possessive of what?”
“You.”
I almost laughed.
He continued.
“They remember you as a boy. They question your decisions emotionally.”
“Like Maria.”
“Yes.”
“And Victoria doesn’t?”
“She respects structure.”
Maria’s eyebrows lifted.
Good.
Marcus continued.
“The organization cannot be run through people who think changing your diapers gives them a vote.”
I looked at him.
“No one gave Maria a vote.”
“Exactly.”
He smiled.
“She behaves like she has one.”
There.
That was his real grievance.
Not authority.
Permission to speak.
Maria spoke without waiting.
She knew when I was wrong and said so.
Marcus wanted information flowing upward only through rank.
Isabella had wanted something different.
People close enough to truth should speak, regardless of title.
That had always made Marcus uncomfortable.
I leaned back.
“What was the end state?”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Five years from now.”
Silence.
“Victoria married to me. Maria gone. Old staff scattered. Noah at the lake house. Your men taking council questions before they reach me.”
His face hardened.
“Then what?”
“You lead.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You don’t want my chair.”
He stared.
“You want something safer.”
Silence.
“You want me in the chair while you decide which room can reach it.”
That landed.
Even the capos around us shifted.
Different kind of betrayal.
A visible usurper can be fought.
A trusted cousin controlling access can call himself loyal forever.
Marcus smiled slowly.
“You think people come to me because I force them?”
“No.”
I looked around.
“They come because I trained them to think bothering me is dangerous.”
That was partly my fault.
I knew.
My temper.
My impatience.
My reputation.
Marcus turned those traits into infrastructure.
He became the friendly door.
The reasonable Caruso.
The cousin who could “prepare” me.
And I liked the convenience.
That realization hurt.
I had helped build him.
Not intentionally.
Still true.
Maria looked at me.
“You can change that.”
Marcus laughed.
“By letting housekeepers into council?”
“No.”
May you like
I looked at him.
“By making sure nobody needs your permission to tell me I’m wrong.”
