Chapter 6
Vincent suspended Margaret from all family functions involving Laura or the children.
She responded with a three-page letter.
Not an apology.
An argument.
She accused Laura of alienating David from his heritage.
She accused Vincent of weakening the family by pretending blood no longer carried obligations.
She described Emma’s adoption as “Laura’s private decision” that should not automatically change generations of tradition.
Vincent stopped reading twice because anger made concentration difficult.
Laura finished the letter.
Then put it down.
“She really believes this.”
“Yes.”
“That’s almost worse.”
“Yes.”
Margaret also demanded private access to David.
Vincent refused.
Because David was sixteen, Laura made the final parental decision.
She refused too.
Margaret then called David directly.
He did not answer.
She texted him.
He showed Laura immediately.
The message said:
You need to decide whether one ugly dinner changes who you are.
A second arrived.
Your mother will leave. You do not have to leave with her.
Vincent read that sentence several times.
Laura had not yet purchased a house.
No moving date existed.
Margaret was already treating the departure as inevitable.
David looked frightened.
“What does she think I’m supposed to do?”
Laura answered.
“Whatever she thinks, you don’t have to do it.”
Vincent watched David.
That was when he noticed the boy was not relieved.
“Something else happened.”
David looked away.
“What?”
At one of their private lunches, Margaret had asked him a hypothetical question.
If Laura decided she wanted nothing more to do with the Moretti family after he turned eighteen, would David stay?
He had laughed.
Margaret had not.
“She told me I might have to choose someday.”
“Between what?” Vincent asked.
David’s voice became quiet.
“Mom and the family.”
Laura closed her eyes.
“And Emma?”
David nodded.
“She said Emma would go wherever Mom went.”
Vincent felt the logic becoming clearer.
But he still did not understand the timing.
Margaret was planning for David’s adulthood.
The banquet happened now.
May you like
Two years early.
Something had made her accelerate.
