Chapter 3
My father called it the Inner Table.
Six senior Bellandis making decisions behind the boss and calling it tradition.
I called it six people who wanted authority without carrying responsibility.
The first thing I did after taking control was end it.
Lucia never forgave me.
I looked at the six pins in the wooden box and then at her.
“You were rebuilding the Table.”
Lucia folded her hands.
“I was preserving what you destroyed.”
Marco stared at her.
He had served me for twelve years and never once asked for a seat above his rank.
“Who are the six?”
Lucia smiled faintly.
“You assume they’ve agreed.”
“They packed my daughter’s life before asking?”
Her smile disappeared.
Camilla spoke from behind me.
“This wasn’t about the Table at first.”
I turned.
Lucia’s expression sharpened.
Camilla continued anyway.
“It was supposed to be one week.”
“One week where?”
She looked toward Grant.
Grant stayed silent.
I stepped closer.
“Where?”
Camilla finally answered.
“Hawthorne House.”
I knew the name.
An old Bellandi estate two hours north, officially empty since my father died. Lucia had spent summers there when I was a boy. It belonged to the part of my family that still talked about discipline like it was sacred.
“Why Sophia?”
Camilla crossed her arms.
“Because you listen when it’s about her.”
The simplicity of the answer made me colder.
Lucia wanted me to restore the Inner Table.
Camilla wanted something else.
Grant wanted whatever position Lucia promised him.
And Sophia was the one thing all three of them believed could force me to sit still long enough to bargain.
Marco opened one of the soaked school books.
A folded piece of paper slipped out.
Sophia’s handwriting.
Only a few words.
DADDY DOES NOT WANT ME.
Again.
Again.
Again.
One sentence copied across the whole page.
I looked at Camilla.
“She made her write it?”
Camilla said nothing.
Lucia did.
“Children learn through repetition.”
I stared at the page.
May you like
They had not been preparing Sophia only to leave.
They were preparing her to believe the leaving was my fault.
