Chapter 11
The twist changed David more than anyone expected.
For months, he had secretly enjoyed some of Margaret’s attention.
The private lunches.
The older men listening when he spoke.
The ring.
The suggestion that he mattered because of what he might become.
Admitting that embarrassed him.
Vincent refused to let him hide from it.
“You liked being treated as important.”
David nodded.
“That doesn’t make you responsible for what she did.”
“But I knew she hated Emma being adopted.”
“Yes.”
“And I didn’t tell Mom everything.”
Laura looked at him.
“Why?”
David hesitated.
“Because when Aunt Margaret talked about me being the future, it felt good.”
That answer hurt.
It also sounded sixteen.
Laura did not punish honesty.
She asked what he wanted now.
David looked at the Moretti ring.
“I don’t want people deciding my whole life because of my last name.”
Vincent felt those words personally.
He had inherited his own role before he was old enough to understand whether he wanted it.
Margaret called that tradition.
Vincent was beginning to call it coercion.
David asked to provide a complete statement about the months of private conversations.
With Laura and his attorney present, he did.
He described the lunches.
The ring.
The comments about Emma.
The instructions before the banquet.
He did not exaggerate.
He did not turn Margaret into a monster who had never loved him.
That made the account stronger.
Margaret had loved David.
May you like
She had simply decided love gave her the right to design him.
And that was exactly what Vincent intended to end.
