Chapter 5
Then I learned the Custodian Table had not remained theoretical.
Preston had been using it.
Quietly.
Not officially.
At dinners, he asked capos hypothetical questions.
“If Sebastian were unavailable, who keeps the families aligned?”
At retreats:
“Would continuity require someone older around Elisa?”
At Christmas:
“Children need structure when fathers carry dangerous work.”
Never:
Support me.
Never:
Choose Lucinda.
Just enough repetition to make the answer familiar.
I looked at him.
“How long?”
“Two years.”
Elisa was three.
They began when she was one.
My hands closed.
Lucinda whispered:
“We never wanted anything to happen to you.”
“I believe you.”
They both looked surprised.
“That isn’t the defense you think it is.”
They did not need me dead.
They only needed everyone prepared for my absence.
Illness.
Travel.
Injury.
Anything.
Each temporary gap could normalize them governing around Elisa.
May you like
Power rehearsed before necessity.
That was the real plan.
