Chapter 13
Agatha eventually asked to meet Conrad.
He agreed once.
Lawyers attended.
No family estate.
No private room.
They met in Rachel’s office.
Agatha had always looked larger than life inside Bellafonte spaces.
Here, beneath ordinary fluorescent lighting, she looked sixty-five.
Nothing more.
“You think I wanted Elliot dead.”
Conrad sat across from her.
“I think you accepted a risk you had no right to take.”
“He was outside for minutes.”
“He has a cardiac condition.”
“We had doctors on the property.”
“Doctors you deliberately kept away from him.”
Agatha looked down.
Her defense was collapsing even in her own mind.
Then she tried the argument Conrad expected.
“I was protecting this family.”
“From me?”
“From what you were turning it into.”
Conrad waited.
Agatha talked about his father.
About a family built through loyalty.
About capos who dedicated entire lives to Bellafonte power.
About Conrad replacing relatives with accountants, lawyers, and independent directors who did not understand sacrifice.
She believed Julian deserved saving.
Not merely because he was her son.
Because allowing one senior family company to fail would signal weakness.
Conrad listened.
Her motive made sense.
That was what made the conversation useful.
She was not a cartoon villain who woke up wanting to torture a toddler.
She was a woman who had spent forty years believing family survival justified almost anything.
Eventually, that belief made a three-year-old’s fear feel like an acceptable business expense.
“You called him a stray dog,” Conrad said.
Agatha’s expression shifted.
“I was angry.”
“He heard you.”
She looked away.
“You wanted to prove I was too emotional to lead.”
“Yes.”
“And your method was to see whether I would lose control if you endangered my son.”
Agatha said nothing.
Conrad leaned forward.
“Do you understand the part you still have wrong?”
She looked at him.
“You thought loving him made me weaker.”
Silence.
“It was the only thing in that garden that kept me from doing what you hoped I would do.”
Agatha’s face changed.
Conrad stood.
“We’re done.”
She looked suddenly frightened.
“Conrad.”
He stopped.
“Will I ever see him again?”
That was the first question she asked that had nothing to do with power.
Conrad did not answer.
May you like
Not because he wanted to punish her.
Because Elliot’s future relationship with Agatha was not something he intended to decide while she was trying to reduce her guilt.
