Chapter 15
Rafe eventually told me one more truth.
He had seen Sarah after the crash.
Not at the road.
At the clinic.
For two minutes.
Margaret let him in because she needed someone to take Emily away while doctors worked on Sarah.
I stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“I know.”
“What did Sarah say?”
Rafe looked sick.
“She asked if you were coming.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
“What did you say?”
“I said yes.”
“Was I?”
“No.”
I had not been called yet.
That lie came from mercy.
Or cowardice.
Sometimes they look identical in the moment.
Rafe continued.
Sarah gave him one message.
Tell Caleb I wasn’t leaving him.
My chest tightened.
“You had that for eighteen months.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the workshop window.
“Because Margaret told me you’d burn the family down.”
I laughed quietly.
“She was right.”
Rafe looked at me.
“No.”
He nodded toward Emily outside.
“She was wrong about what burning it down would look like.”
Fair.
I had not killed captains.
Had not started a war.
Had not turned grief into bodies.
I changed doors.
Access.
Who could speak to my child.
Who could filter information.
Who had power because my father once trusted them.
Maybe structural destruction frightened old Mafia families more than blood.
Blood they understood.
Boundaries felt revolutionary.
I looked at Rafe.
“You stay because Sarah trusted you once.”
He looked surprised.
“She also stopped trusting me.”
“Yes.”
Both.
Again.
“You earn the difference.”
Rafe nodded.
No promise.
No dramatic oath.
Good.
Outside, Emily called me.
Her birdhouse had finally attracted something.
A small sparrow sat on the roof.
She was standing beneath it, grinning.
“Dad!”
I went outside.
May you like
The chain above the birdhouse moved gently in the wind.
For once, nobody was attached to it.
