Chapter 2
The photographer confirmed it.
Not willingly.
He thought the arrangement came from me.
Bianca had given him a detailed list.
First photograph:
Bride and groom.
Normal.
Second:
Senior families.
Normal.
Third:
“The future Carbone household.”
Not normal.
Gregory centered beside me.
Bianca beside him.
Sophia excluded.
Emma excluded.
My daughter’s husband excluded.
Even Sophia’s unborn child, naturally, reduced to absence.
I stared at the seating diagram Bianca had prepared.
There was even a place where my signet hand would rest visibly on Gregory’s shoulder.
A blessing.
Without words.
Exactly how Mafia families communicated when they wanted plausible deniability.
No announcement.
Just an image powerful men would circulate and interpret.
Gregory had planned to let everyone else create the rumor.
That I had chosen him.
That Carbone’s next phase would run through Hale.
That my daughter’s branch was decorative rather than central.
Smart.
Until a three-year-old’s dress became inconvenient.
“Why Emma?”
The photographer looked confused.
“She was originally included.”
Originally.
Then Bianca changed it yesterday.
Why?
Because children make bloodlines visually obvious.
Emma standing beside Sophia would remind everyone that my direct family continued.
Bianca wanted Sophie—
No.
There was no Sophie here.
Different story.
She wanted no child at all beside Sophia because Sophia herself was supposed to be moved to the outer family grouping.
My pregnant daughter.
My granddaughter.
Repositioned into background.
Not removed from love.
May you like
Removed from imagery.
Sometimes power begins with who gets cropped.
