Chapter 14
Nolan returned to the estate after four months.
Not as capo.
As my brother.
That distinction frightened him.
We sat in the garden without guards close enough to hear.
He looked older.
Not dramatically.
Less armored.
“How’s Lucia?”
“Loud.”
He smiled.
“Valenti.”
“Unfortunately.”
Silence.
Then he asked:
“Can I see a picture?”
I considered.
Not mine alone to decide.
“Elise?”
He nodded.
Fair.
I asked later.
She said yes.
I showed him one.
Nothing more.
His eyes filled.
“She looks like you.”
“Poor child.”
He laughed.
Then cried.
Quietly.
I waited.
“I hated her before she existed.”
There it was.
Brutal.
Honest.
“Why?”
“Because Mother taught me she was coming to erase me.”
I said nothing.
“And I let myself believe it because part of me already felt erased.”
He looked at me.
“That part is on me.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
No argument.
“I’m building something separate.”
“What?”
“A small logistics crew. No family title.”
Interesting.
“Under whose authority?”
“Mine.”
I almost smiled.
Good.
Not my Second Chair.
Not father’s younger son.
Nolan.
He continued.
“I don’t know if I ever want the capo pin back.”
“That’s yours to decide.”
His face changed.
Maybe that was the first time I had said it.
Our father built roles for us early.
I inherited more comfortably.
Nolan did not.
Vivian weaponized that.
But the original pressure existed before she touched it.
“I should have asked what you wanted years ago,” I said.
He stared.
“Yes.”
No easy forgiveness for me either.
Then he added:
“You still shouldn’t have had to ask me not to hurt Elise.”
Also true.
May you like
We sat with both truths.
That was more useful than deciding which one won.
