Chapter 2
I sent Eli inside with my most trusted guard and told him I would follow in five minutes.
He clung to my hand.
“Daddy, are you mad?”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
The question hit harder than the rod striking the dirt.
“No.”
He studied my face.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Only then did he let go.
When the door closed behind him, I turned back toward my family.
Miriam remained standing beside Conrad as though seniority itself could shield him.
It could not.
“What did you mean?”
She looked bored.
“I meant exactly what I said.”
“The ball should not have belonged to Eli?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She sighed.
“Because some children are handed too much before they understand what it means.”
I almost laughed.
“He is three.”
“That is exactly when you begin teaching hierarchy.”
There it was.
Not discipline.
Hierarchy.
Conrad folded his arms.
“Nathan saw the ball first.”
“It was in my son’s playroom yesterday.”
No answer.
I looked at Nathan.
He stared at the ground.
“Who gave it to you?”
Miriam immediately said, “Leave him out of this.”
I ignored her.
“Nathan?”
He looked toward Conrad.
Wrong instinct.
Then whispered:
“Grandma Miriam.”
Silence.
I turned.
“You took Eli’s ball and gave it to Nathan.”
Miriam did not deny it.
“I reassigned a toy.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
She finally said:
“Because Nathan needs to understand what belongs to his branch.”
That word mattered.
Branch.
Not child.
Not cousin.
Branch.
The Ravello family had always been divided quietly between my father’s line and Miriam’s younger brother’s line. I inherited command because my father died while I was already running operations. Conrad never challenged it openly.
Apparently Miriam had found another battlefield.
Children.
I looked at Conrad.
“You let her teach your son that taking from mine proves something.”
He said nothing.
Miriam smiled faintly.
“It proves he won’t grow up soft.”
I thought about Eli sobbing against my chest.
Then I looked at her.
“No.”
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“It proves the adults around him are teaching him that love, property, and power are things he has to steal before someone else takes them.”
For the first time, Miriam’s smile disappeared.
