Chapter 4
I asked Marcus when the videos started.
He said six weeks ago.
I asked what happened before the first one.
He looked toward Victor.
That glance told me there was something I had not yet seen.
“Marcus.”
He exhaled.
“Ellie refused to give Lucas a family ring.”
I frowned.
“What ring?”
Victor answered.
“A child’s replica.”
“I never gave her one.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“I did.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“To see what she would do.”
I stared at him.
“You gave a four-year-old a ring to test her?”
“She hid it.”
Marcus interrupted quietly.
“She gave it back.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
I looked at Marcus.
“What happened?”
“Victor told her the ring meant she was a real Caruso.”
My expression changed.
“And?”
“Ellie asked if Lucas got one too.”
I already knew I would hate the rest.
Marcus continued.
“Victor told her Lucas would inherit one day and she needed to learn where she stood.”
Silence.
I looked at my father.
“You told my daughter she was less Caruso than Lucas.”
“He’s male.”
There it was.
Old poison.
Old rules.
The kind I thought I buried when I took his chair.
I leaned back.
“And when Ellie returned the ring?”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“She said she didn’t want something that meant Lucas was better.”
I almost smiled.
That sounded exactly like my daughter.
Victor did not find it charming.
“She embarrassed me.”
So that was the beginning.
Not horse games.
Not discipline.
Humiliation.
A four-year-old rejected the hierarchy Victor tried to hand her, and he punished her until she accepted her place.
Marcus stared at the table.
“I should have stopped it.”
“Yes.”
No comfort.
No immediate forgiveness.
He looked up.
“I thought it would end after one afternoon.”
“And when it didn’t?”
He closed his eyes.
“I kept telling myself I was recording proof.”
I pushed the phone toward him.
“You sent laughing reactions.”
His face changed.
“I know.”
“Why?”
His answer came quietly.
“Because Victor was watching who didn’t.”
That stopped me.
I looked at my father.
He smiled faintly.
May you like
And suddenly the family group chat looked less like entertainment.
It looked like a loyalty test.
