Chapter 11
Selena requested one private meeting with Donato.
He refused.
She requested another through counsel.
He agreed only with attorneys present.
No bodyguards.
No capos.
No room belonging to either family.
Selena entered without her engagement ring.
She looked exhausted.
Donato felt no satisfaction.
“You think I wanted to erase Isabella.”
“You ordered her things removed.”
“I wanted the house to become ours.”
“It was already Ava’s.”
Selena looked away.
“That’s the problem.”
Donato’s expression changed.
She corrected herself quickly.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant.”
Selena’s eyes filled.
“You don’t know what it was like.”
“Then tell me.”
“I walked into rooms where people stopped talking because they were talking about her. Your daughter cried for her every time I disciplined her. You kept photographs beside your bed.”
“She was my wife.”
“And I was supposed to become your wife.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Donato stared at her.
Selena continued.
“Where was I supposed to fit?”
That was the first honest question she had asked.
Donato answered honestly too.
“Beside what already existed.”
Selena shook her head.
“You don’t build a marriage beside a ghost.”
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“You build it beside a child whose mother died.”
That silenced her.
Then Donato asked:
“Why the pool?”
Selena closed her eyes.
“I was angry.”
“At Ava?”
“At everything.”
“You knew she couldn’t swim.”
“I knew it was shallow.”
“She is three.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Donato looked at her.
“You know now.”
Selena began crying.
“I didn’t think she’d get hurt.”
“That sentence is not the same as caring whether she did.”
She looked down.
Donato did not insult her.
Did not threaten her.
Did not tell her she was lucky to be alive.
May you like
He simply ended the meeting.
Because understanding resentment did not create an obligation to forgive what resentment became.
