Chapter 7
Celina believed she deserved more power.
Not because she was my wife.
Because she thought she was smarter than the men around me.
Maybe she was.
That did not make her right.
“I kept this house functioning while you played king in the next room.”
I stared.
“My children were hungry.”
“They were never in danger.”
Ivy was sitting with Teresa in the adjoining room.
I could still hear her little voice.
I kept mine low.
“You made them earn food through someone else’s obedience.”
Celina rolled her eyes.
“They needed discipline.”
“No.”
My jaw tightened.
“You needed leverage.”
She leaned forward.
“Do you know what it’s like being married to you?”
I said nothing.
“Everyone asks what Gianluca thinks. What Teresa thinks. What the old captains think. Nobody asks what I think.”
There.
The wound beneath ambition.
Real.
Still not an excuse.
“So you chose children.”
Her face hardened.
“I chose what worked.”
Rafael looked away.
Even he disliked hearing it stated plainly.
Celina continued.
“Your mother refuses every change I make.”
“Which change?”
“She undermines me.”
“How?”
“She tells Ivy and Owen they can come to her whenever they want.”
I stared.
“That is called being their grandmother.”
“She tells staff they don’t need my permission for everything.”
“Correct.”
“She told you not to give Rafael another crew last year.”
Rafael’s face tightened.
There it was.
Older resentment.
Celina had not invented factional anger.
She collected it.
Fed it.
Used it.
Then she looked at Teresa.
“She acts like this is still her house.”
My mother finally spoke.
“No.”
Celina looked at her.
Teresa’s voice remained weak but steady.
“I acted like it was my son’s.”
Silence.
That hit differently.
Celina wanted ownership.
Teresa wanted belonging.
The difference was everything.
Then Teresa said something I did not expect.
“She wanted something else.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
My mother looked toward the old stone fireplace.
“The black phone was not what she was searching for.”
Celina’s expression changed.
I noticed.
Teresa continued.
May you like
“She wanted your father’s red key.”
And suddenly the cruelty had another purpose.
