Chapter 5
Ethan came home three days later.
Clara had already been discharged.
The household changed before either child returned.
Silvano moved business meetings out of the residential wing.
Bodyguards stopped using the family kitchen as a pass-through.
Estate staff received written child-safety procedures.
No one was allowed to move Ethan or Clara between buildings or vehicles without a logged adult handoff.
His older associates thought it was excessive.
Silvano no longer cared.
Ethan noticed something else.
“Aunt Lucia coming?”
Silvano sat beside him.
“Not right now.”
“Is she mad?”
“No.”
That was not entirely true.
“Did she do something bad?”
Silvano chose his words.
“She made a very bad decision.”
Ethan picked at the edge of his hospital bracelet.
“She said you'd be mad if you knew.”
Silvano looked at him.
“Knew what?”
“That I wanted to live at her house sometimes.”
The answer hurt.
Silvano hid it badly.
Ethan immediately noticed.
“See?”
“What?”
“She said you make that face.”
Silvano looked away.
Lucia had not invented every part of Ethan’s dissatisfaction.
The boy loved Silvano.
He also liked Lucia’s quieter Pasadena home.
No guards at breakfast.
No men waiting outside rooms.
A neighborhood park within walking distance.
Lucia had taken something legitimate and weaponized it.
That evening Silvano called her.
“You knew he wanted more time with you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I did.”
Silvano remembered several conversations.
Lucia saying Ethan needed normal weekends.
Lucia suggesting school near her home.
Lucia criticizing the estate.
Silvano had heard criticism of himself instead of concern about Ethan.
He had shut her down.
Lucia said:
“You only hear people once they disobey you.”
Silvano did not answer.
Because that sentence was harder to dismiss than everything else she had done.
Then he asked:
“What did Marco want from you?”
Lucia became quiet.
Silvano repeated it.
“He helped you manufacture evidence against me. Why?”
May you like
Lucia finally said:
“Because I caught him using your cars.”
