Chapter 2 - THE RULE NOBODY COULD PRODUCE
Antonio ended the banquet.
Guests were told to leave except for the seven people who had stood, Damian, and Lavinia.
Nobody argued after seeing Damian still waiting in the hallway with two bodyguards between him and the dining room.
Antonio returned after Lucas had eaten.
“Who authorized this?”
Lavinia answered.
“The family did.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She sighed.
“You are gone constantly. Meetings. Properties. Business. The child throws tantrums because everyone indulges him.”
“What tantrum justified tying him down tonight?”
“He refused to apologize.”
“For what?”
Lavinia hesitated.
Damian answered from the hallway.
“He knocked over a glass.”
Antonio looked at the table.
There was no broken glass.
One of the house staff, a server named Nancy, lowered her eyes.
Antonio noticed.
“Where?”
Damian pointed toward the far end.
Antonio looked at Nancy.
“Did Lucas knock over a glass?”
Nobody breathed.
Nancy finally said, “He bumped one with his elbow.”
“Did it break?”
“No, sir.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No.”
“Did he apologize?”
Nancy looked at Lucas’s empty chair.
“Yes.”
Damian swore.
Lavinia’s face tightened.
Antonio turned toward the seven relatives.
“You agreed a three-year-old should miss dinner because he bumped a glass he apologized for?”
Martin spoke carefully.
“We were told this was part of the discipline plan.”
“What discipline plan?”
Silence.
Antonio looked at Lavinia.
“Show me.”
“It isn’t written down.”
“Who discussed it with me?”
“You didn’t need to be bothered with every household issue.”
Antonio laughed once.
Nobody mistook the sound for amusement.
“You disciplined my son while deliberately keeping me uninformed.”
Lavinia stood.
“We raised you.”
Antonio’s expression changed.
There it was again.
Not Lucas.
Antonio.
The justification always returned to him.
“This worked on you,” she said. “You became strong enough to lead this family.”
Antonio stared at her.
For the first time, he heard what she was really saying.
She did not believe she was harming Lucas.
She believed she was reproducing Antonio.
And everyone who stayed silent had accepted the mythology surrounding Antonio’s childhood.
That night he ordered a complete review of the household cameras, staff schedules, and every period during the previous six months when he had been away from the estate.
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Lavinia called it humiliating.
Antonio called it the first time anyone had bothered checking what happened after he walked out the door.
