Chapter 2
I sent Caleb upstairs with my personal physician and two bodyguards.
He did not want to let go of my hand.
That hurt more than anything Bianca had done.
“I’m coming back,” I told him.
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
Only then did he release me.
When the door closed behind him, I returned to the dining room and found my parents standing exactly where I left them. Bianca had moved beside Mason. One hand rested on his shoulder.
Possession.
Protection.
Presentation.
I saw all three at once.
“What did Caleb mean by family game?”
Francesca answered first.
“Children exaggerate.”
“Mason?”
He looked at his mother.
Wrong instinct.
Bianca squeezed his shoulder.
I noticed.
“Let him answer.”
“He doesn’t need to.”
I looked at her.
“Then you do.”
Her expression hardened.
She was still angry about the blow I gave her, but anger no longer helped her. Too many people had seen the scene. Too many bodyguards. Too many relatives.
Finally Mason spoke.
“Grandma said one of us has to be strong enough.”
My chest tightened.
“For what?”
He hesitated.
Bianca looked at him.
Again.
“Mason.”
I said his name quietly.
He looked at me.
“What did she say?”
He swallowed.
“That one of us will get Grandpa’s chair someday.”
Silence.
My father closed his eyes.
Francesca did not.
She looked irritated.
Not ashamed.
I laughed once.
“His chair?”
Vincent’s voice was low.
“It was a metaphor.”
“No.”
I looked at Caleb’s empty chair.
“Mason hit my son while he was tied down because you turned succession into a children’s contest.”
Francesca rolled her eyes.
“Don’t be dramatic.”
I stared at her.
“He couldn’t breathe.”
“He is always crying about something.”
There it was again.
Weakness.
Always framed as character.
Bianca stepped forward.
“Mason needs to understand responsibility.”
“And Caleb?”
She looked at me.
“Caleb needs to understand reality.”
I almost smiled.
“Which reality?”
No one answered.
Then one of the older relatives at the table quietly said:
“That Mason may be chosen over him.”
May you like
I turned.
Now the room had finally admitted what the adults had been teaching the children in private.
