Chapter 5
Vivian had already chosen the next step.
Blackwood.
An old Valenti estate forty miles north.
I had spent summers there as a child.
I hated the place.
Until that night, I could not remember why.
Matteo Russo told me.
“He was supposed to go tomorrow.”
My hands became cold.
“Milo?”
Matteo nodded.
“For how long?”
“Six months.”
Caroline looked at him.
“You said six weeks.”
Interesting.
My mother stayed silent.
I looked at her.
“Six months.”
“He needs consistency.”
“He is three.”
“So?”
The word nearly made me stand.
I stayed seated.
Better.
“What exactly happens at Blackwood?”
Matteo answered.
Older household staff.
Private tutors eventually.
Structured meals.
No toys during training hours.
No sleeping with parents.
No running into council spaces.
No crying rewarded with attention.
At three.
I stared.
“You were sending my son away to be raised by strangers.”
Vivian corrected:
“By Valentis.”
I almost laughed.
As if surname transformed strangers into parents.
“Who approved this?”
Three elder capos.
Matteo.
My mother.
Caroline knew part of it.
Not six months.
Still knew.
“What did you tell Milo?”
Vivian said nothing.
Sophia had followed us again.
She answered.
“Grandma said Daddy picked Blackwood.”
My breathing changed.
I looked at Vivian.
“You used my name.”
She finally looked slightly uneasy.
Good.
“What else?”
Sophia swallowed.
“She told him you don’t want crying in your house anymore.”
I closed my eyes.
That was why Milo asked if it was really me.
Not because I had been gone long.
Because every cruel rule came wearing my face.
Daddy says.
Daddy wants.
Daddy chose.
My authority had been borrowed to build fear I never ordered.
I opened my eyes.
“You planned to send him away believing I wanted him gone.”
Vivian looked bored.
“He would eventually understand.”
“No.”
My voice dropped.
“He would eventually stop asking.”
That was different.
Worse.
Blackwood was not training.
It was separation long enough for the child to attach obedience to whoever remained.
May you like
My mother wanted to build my successor.
And the first thing she intended to remove from him was me.
