Chapter 15
Dominic’s last secret came from Gabriel.
Not another murder.
Something quieter.
Our mother Rosa had planned to remove Dominic from security four years earlier.
Before she died.
That was why Dominic confronted her.
I looked at him.
“You thought she was taking your place.”
He laughed.
“She was.”
“No.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“She was taking your access.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
Different.
Important.
Rosa had realized Dominic controlled too much information. She planned to split security among three men so no single person could decide what reached me.
Dominic interpreted that as betrayal.
Because in his mind, access and love were the same thing.
I understood suddenly.
Enzo had trained him to believe proximity to the boss was survival.
If someone else became trusted, Dominic felt endangered.
Isabella.
Gabriel.
Rosa.
Even Lucia.
A child.
Anyone closer to me became a threat.
“You didn’t only remove Isabella because of Enzo.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You did it because she mattered to me.”
His face changed.
There.
“I kept you alive.”
“For eleven years.”
“Yes.”
“And charged everyone around me for it.”
He stood.
Guards moved.
Dominic ignored them.
“You have no idea what I did for you.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
His voice cracked for the first time.
“I buried my father’s name. I protected yours. I made captains afraid to test you. I cleaned every mess before you saw it.”
I stared.
“That’s the problem.”
He stopped.
“You made sure I never saw anything until you had already decided what it meant.”
Silence.
Dominic looked tired.
Older.
For one moment I saw the cousin I grew up beside.
Then he said:
“And you loved me for it.”
That hurt.
“Yes.”
He looked almost relieved.
I continued.
“But love is not permission.”
The relief disappeared.
I removed his family pin from the table and placed it inside a drawer.
Not destroyed.
Not returned.
“I won’t pretend eleven years meant nothing.”
Dominic stared.
“They didn’t.”
I looked toward the café where Lucia was laughing with Isabella.
“But they do not buy you the next eleven.”
That was the end of his authority.
Not our history.
May you like
History does not vanish because truth makes it ugly.
It simply stops being allowed to command the future.
