Chapter 6
Camille asked to see me.
I made her wait until noon.
Not punishment.
I wanted exhaustion removed from my judgment.
She sat across from me in the library without jewelry for the first time in years.
Smart.
She knew symbols irritated me now.
“Why the east nursery?”
Her eyes filled immediately.
“Nico—”
“Answer.”
She looked down.
“I thought Mira would be safer there.”
“From Elena?”
Silence.
“Say it.”
“Yes.”
There.
No more hiding.
“You think my daughter is dangerous.”
“I think she’s unstable.”
“Because you made her doubt herself.”
Camille’s face tightened.
“That’s not fair.”
“No.”
I leaned back.
“It isn’t.”
She stared.
“You were difficult after Mira was born too.”
Interesting.
“What?”
“You barely slept. You canceled dinners. You moved meetings because Elena needed you.”
I almost laughed.
“My granddaughter was born.”
“Exactly.”
There.
Not Elena.
Me.
Mira had changed my priorities.
Camille felt it.
“She gets everything.”
“Who?”
“Elena.”
My wife’s eyes filled.
“She has you. She has the family name. She has the house waiting for her. Now she has a daughter everyone treats like the center of the estate.”
There.
Jealousy.
Not of a baby.
Of permanence.
Camille married into Bellaforte.
Elena was born into it.
Mira extended it.
Every generation after me could exist without Camille having any role.
That terrified her.
“I am your wife.”
“Yes.”
“But when Elena walks in, I’m still the young wife.”
Her voice broke.
“When Mira was born, people congratulated you, congratulated Elena, called her the future of the house.”
I understood.
Understanding did not help her.
“So you decided Elena needed to look incapable.”
Camille covered her face.
“I wanted people to stop worshipping her.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You wanted them to need you.”
That was closer.
She dropped her hands.
Then whispered:
“Yes.”
There.
The motive.
Not madness.
Not hatred.
Need.
Camille wanted a permanent function inside a family that would continue after her even if she had none.
She chose to manufacture one.
Caretaker.
Stabilizer.
May you like
The woman trusted with Mira when Elena supposedly failed.
A role built from another woman’s collapse.
