Chapter 20
Bianca asked to send a second letter when Nico was eleven.
Through her attorney.
Always through the boundary.
That mattered.
Vittorio told Nico.
He frowned.
“Why ask you?”
“Because you’re eleven.”
“Old enough first one.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
Good question.
The no-contact rule still belonged partly to Vittorio while Nico was a child.
Nico could choose more contact.
He could not be required to manage all of its safety alone.
“She has to ask because I’m still responsible for the conditions.”
Nico thought.
“You choose if dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“I choose if want.”
“Yes.”
Better.
The letter was screened only for pressure.
Not content.
Nico read it himself.
Bianca wrote about Claire.
That was what Nico had asked for.
She did not say Claire stole her place.
Not anymore.
She wrote:
Your mother became important to people because she did work that mattered.
I treated that as something being taken from me.
When donors listened to her, I felt ignored.
When your father listened to her, I felt replaced.
When your adaptive-music program succeeded, I told myself everyone had forgotten what I had done for the foundation before Claire arrived.
None of those feelings gave me ownership over the foundation or over your father.
Nico stopped.
“Ownership?”
Vittorio explained.
“Believing something belongs to you.”
“Aunt Bee thought you belong?”
“In some ways.”
Nico looked disgusted.
“People not property.”
“No.”
Apparently eleven was enough for governance.
The letter continued.
Bianca admitted helping Owen because she thought temporary donor money could save his company.
Then temporary became concealment.
Concealment became blaming Claire.
Claire refusing had become proof, in Bianca’s mind, that Claire was disloyal.
Nico read the last paragraph.
I hated your mother for saying no to something she was right to refuse.
That is mine to carry.
Not yours.
Nico looked at Vittorio.
“Did Mommy hate her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You knew Mommy.”
“Yes.”
“Guess.”
Vittorio thought.
“I think Claire was angry.”
“That not hate.”
“No.”
“Maybe.”
Maybe.
Nico wrote one question.
WHY DID YOU BREAK THE AIRPLANE IF MOMMY WAS DEAD?
The answer came two weeks later.
Because it was still connected to her.
You had made it with her.
You were proud of it.
When you gave it to me, I saw Claire inside something that was supposed to be about me.
That was cruel and irrational.
I should have seen my nephew giving me a gift.
Instead I saw someone I was still competing with after she was gone.
Nico read it.
Then:
“She fought dead Mommy.”
“Yes.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Yes.”
He wrote:
MOMMY WASN’T COMPETING.
Bianca replied only after permission.
I know that now.
Nico did not answer again.
For another year.
Understanding Bianca better did not make him want her more.
May you like
That was important.
Information was not reconciliation.
