Chapter 5
Sophie woke after midnight.
She came downstairs barefoot, holding her blanket.
I found her in the hallway outside the dining room.
The bowl was still on the table.
She stopped when she saw it.
Then took one step backward.
I crouched.
“You don’t have to go in.”
She nodded.
But did not move.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Is Aunt Bianca mad?”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
My throat tightened.
“No.”
“Because I told?”
There it was.
I sat on the floor.
My suit meant nothing.
My chair meant nothing.
Not in that moment.
“Sophie, look at me.”
She did.
“You never get punished for telling me someone hurt you.”
Her eyes filled.
“Even family?”
“Especially family.”
She thought.
Then whispered:
“Aunt Bianca says family rules are bigger than Daddy rules.”
I went still.
“When did she say that?”
“A lot.”
Of course.
Bianca had created a second authority inside my own house.
One directed at the child.
Maybe not only the child.
“What else?”
Sophie pressed her cheek against my shoulder.
“She says when Uncle Matteo is boss, I don’t sit at big table.”
My body became completely still.
Not if.
When.
I picked her up.
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
The conspiracy finally had language simple enough that nobody could decorate it.
Bianca had been telling my daughter I would be replaced.
I carried Sophie upstairs.
When I returned, Matteo was waiting alone in the dining room.
He had heard.
His face told me.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
I believed him.
Barely.
He looked at the bowl.
“She told Sophie I’d be boss?”
“Yes.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“That wasn’t the plan.”
I sat.
“Then there was a plan.”
He closed his eyes.
Again.
Too late.
“What was it?”
Matteo looked toward the council-room doors.
“You were supposed to step back.”
I almost laughed.
“Why?”
“Temporarily.”
“For what?”
He hesitated.
“Until Sophie was older.”
I stared.
My aunt had turned my daughter’s existence into a reason to remove me.
And Matteo had agreed.
May you like
Not to become boss permanently, according to him.
Only until everyone became comfortable enough to stop asking when I was coming back.
