Chapter 16
The banquet salon reopened after renovations.
Same long table.
Different security.
No guard assigned exclusively by one family office.
Mixed teams.
Rotations.
Direct reporting channels.
Boring.
Exactly what safety should be.
Nora walked in and looked at the table.
Her face changed.
Memory.
She touched the edge where Caleb had thrown her.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“This table bad?”
“No.”
I crouched beside her.
“Something bad happened on it.”
She thought.
Different.
“Can eat cake?”
“Yes.”
Powerful therapy.
Cake.
We held a small family dinner there.
No Evelyn.
No Caleb.
Not yet.
Mrs. Hart sat for dessert because Nora demanded it.
One old capo objected with his eyebrows.
I ignored him.
Nora climbed onto her chair.
No pin.
No test.
No one watched which guard moved.
Halfway through dessert, a server accidentally knocked a presentation box from the side table.
It burst open.
Everyone froze.
Only napkins.
Nothing else.
Nora laughed.
The adults exhaled.
I realized how deeply the banquet had marked all of us.
Not just her.
Symbols again.
Boxes.
Pins.
Cash.
Guards lowering their eyes.
We were learning to let ordinary objects become ordinary.
At the end of dinner Michael handed me a real capo pin.
One of mine.
“What?”
“Your new appointment.”
I looked at the man waiting near the door.
Daniel Price.
The guard who openly admitted he preferred Caleb.
Interesting.
Michael smiled faintly.
“He earned it.”
I thought.
Daniel had spent six months leading transport security without hiding opinion or taking unauthorized orders.
Competent.
Direct.
Sometimes annoying.
Good.
I pinned him officially.
No secret ceremony.
Everyone saw.
Nora watched.
“Real pin?”
“Yes.”
“How know?”
I showed her the tiny cut beneath the crest.
She smiled.
“Rabbit fake.”
“Very.”
She hugged the rabbit anyway.
Good.
May you like
Authenticity mattered for authority.
Not for affection.
