Chapter 7
I asked my father the question I had avoided.
“Why didn’t you come back when Stefano died?”
His face changed.
Good.
Pain belonged there.
“Because I was ashamed.”
I had expected strategy.
Not that.
“Of what?”
“Of you.”
My jaw tightened.
He corrected quickly.
“No. Of facing you.”
Silence.
Better.
He continued.
“You built what I could not.”
I stared.
“The family stabilized under you.”
“Yes.”
“You survived Stefano.”
“Yes.”
“You stopped three internal feuds without bloodshed.”
I almost smiled.
Mostly true.
“You didn’t need me.”
There.
The cowardice beneath protection.
“You decided that.”
“Yes.”
“For me.”
“Yes.”
Again.
He learned slowly.
“What did you do for twelve years?”
“Moved.”
“Where?”
“Canada. Montana. Nevada. Italy briefly.”
A ghost with excellent travel habits.
“Did you watch me?”
He looked away.
Sometimes.
My chest tightened.
“You saw Lucas?”
“Photographs.”
That angered me more than expected.
“You watched your grandson through photographs.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever think maybe he deserved a grandfather?”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Then why now?”
He looked toward the wall.
“Because I realized my silence was no longer protecting anyone.”
Finally.
That sentence mattered.
He explained.
One surviving member of Stefano’s old faction contacted him two months ago.
Told him Evelyn was rebuilding elder influence around Graham.
Told him my reforms had become the excuse.
Lorenzo realized his “death” had created a vacuum others kept filling.
Every year he stayed gone gave old myths more power.
“So you came back.”
“Yes.”
“And walked into my planetarium without calling.”
“I didn’t know who around you was safe.”
Fair.
Painfully.
“Why trust Mrs. Bennett?”
He smiled faintly.
“Because she slapped your grandfather once.”
I stared.
Mrs. Bennett, outside the room, coughed.
Apparently family history contained better chapters than anyone had told me.
For the first time since opening the wall, I almost laughed.
Then Lorenzo said:
“I did not expect Lucas.”
No.
May you like
Nobody ever did.
That was why children kept finding things adults missed.
