Chapter 10
The Second Table met one final time.
With me at the head.
Not because I wanted the seat.
Because I wanted the room closed properly.
Six relatives.
Vivian.
Nolan.
Elise by choice.
No bones.
No hidden locks.
The emergency key sat in front of me.
I looked around.
“Who believed Nolan would lose everything after the baby came?”
Four hands.
“Who heard that from me?”
None.
“Who heard it from Nolan?”
Two.
Nolan looked ashamed.
“Who heard it from Vivian?”
All six.
There it was.
I turned toward my brother.
“What did you tell them?”
He swallowed.
“That I was worried.”
“About?”
“Being replaced.”
Honest.
“Did you ask me?”
“No.”
I nodded.
Then to the others.
“You turned his fear into a faction.”
My uncle Victor objected.
“We were trying to prevent a family split.”
I looked at the hidden room around us.
“You created one.”
Silence.
Rebecca spoke.
“What happens now?”
Good question.
“No more Second Table.”
Vivian laughed bitterly.
“So everyone just pretends concerns don’t exist?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“They say them where I can hear.”
That was the rule.
No hidden loyalty councils built from assumptions.
No punishment dinners.
No using spouses or children as proof.
Then I looked at Nolan.
“You lose Second Chair.”
His face changed.
Not surprise.
Pain.
I continued.
“Not because the baby exists.”
That mattered.
“Because you helped build a faction around a lie, attacked me to protect it, and watched Elise be mistreated.”
He nodded slowly.
“Capo?”
“Suspended.”
He accepted that too.
Vivian whispered:
“You’re proving me right.”
I looked at her.
“No.”
A pause.
“Nolan is losing authority because of choices he made as an adult.”
Silence.
“Not because my child is being born.”
That distinction broke the entire story she had spent months building.
May you like
My baby had taken nothing from Nolan.
Nolan had.
