Chapter 10
The council meeting began with silence.
Silas no longer sat at my right.
Gavin did not attend.
Neither did Celeste.
June’s recording played once.
No repetition.
Nobody needed to watch Maisie struggle more than necessary.
When it ended, I asked:
“Who knew the Hearth Rule was being prepared?”
Three hands.
Then a fourth.
Four senior capos.
Not all knew the fireplace plan.
Important distinction.
“What were you told?”
That I had frightened Maisie twice.
False.
That staff worried about my temper.
Manufactured.
That Celeste feared for the child.
Partly true because Silas taught her to fear the future she wanted.
That Gavin had witnessed uncontrolled rage.
Lie.
One capo, Thomas Vale, looked sick.
“We were told there would be evidence tonight.”
I stared.
“You expected evidence before an incident occurred.”
His face changed.
There.
That sentence exposed everything.
They had already decided what they expected to see.
The fireplace would only decorate the conclusion.
I looked around.
“The Hearth Rule ends.”
Silas had supporters even absent.
One man objected.
“It exists to protect children from powerful fathers.”
“Then build protection that does not depend on secret councils deciding what the child said before she says it.”
Silence.
Good.
I continued.
“No child is removed from a parent by internal family order without immediate independent household witnesses and the child’s own trusted adult present.”
Not police.
Not courts.
Our world.
But no more closed room deciding.
Another capo frowned.
“You’re weakening council authority.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I’m removing your ability to manufacture the crisis that gives you authority.”
Different.
The vote to end the rule was not unanimous.
I did not need it to be.
May you like
I was still boss.
For once, I intended to use that power to reduce the ways power could hide itself.
