Chapter 15
I gathered the senior Hayes capos before sunrise.
No police.
No outsiders.
My house.
My people.
Luis’s recordings played first.
Grant selling routes.
Vanessa discussing Maria and Sophia.
Vincent approving their removal.
Then the kitchen footage.
Sophia asking for food.
Vanessa pouring water down the sink.
Sophia crying.
Pet-food bowl.
No capo looked away.
Good.
They needed to see it.
Grant laughed.
“Are we really deciding leadership based on a hungry kid?”
One old capo stood.
“No.”
Grant smiled.
The man continued.
“We’re deciding whether anyone who does that to a child can be trusted near our families.”
Grant stopped smiling.
Vanessa scoffed.
“She wasn’t tortured.”
Maria closed her eyes.
Vanessa continued:
“She missed meals.”
Sophia’s voice came from the doorway.
“Five days.”
Everyone turned.
Maria had brought her down because Sophia refused breakfast unless she could see her mother.
I crouched.
“You don’t have to stay.”
“I want Mommy.”
Maria picked her up.
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“See? Always performing.”
The room changed.
Even Vincent looked disgusted now.
I stared at Vanessa.
“You cannot stop.”
“What?”
“Hurting her.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Because everyone keeps rewarding her.”
Maria finally spoke.
“She was hungry.”
“So?”
Vanessa snapped.
“If you had told me where Luis’s phone was, she would have eaten!”
Silence.
Full confession.
In front of every senior capo.
Maria’s face changed.
Not fear.
Something stronger.
“You made my daughter pay because my husband died protecting Daniel.”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Maria continued.
“You called us servants like that made our pain cheaper.”
No one moved.
Then Maria looked at me.
“I should have told you.”
I shook my head.
“You are telling me now.”
Sophia looked at me.
“Mr. Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“Are we going away?”
Vanessa smiled cruelly.
“That depends on whether Mommy finally learns—”
I turned so sharply she stopped.
Then I looked at Sophia.
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
May you like
“This is your home as long as your mother wants it to be.”
For the first time in five days, Sophia smiled.
