Chapter 12
The advisory selection took three weeks.
Corinne hated every minute.
She faced questions from capos who once accepted gifts from her boutique.
That irony was not lost on anyone.
One asked why she should be trusted with family influence after using private benefits to shape loyalty.
She answered badly.
Defensive.
Another asked what she would do differently.
She gave a polished answer.
Too polished.
Then an older widow asked:
“Why did you punish Ruby?”
The room changed.
Corinne looked at me.
I did not help.
She took a breath.
“Because I was angry at a future she hadn’t even received.”
Better.
The widow waited.
Corinne continued.
“I saw Luciano’s daughter and imagined another generation where my branch would matter less.”
Silence.
“And instead of challenging the adults responsible for that system, I made a child feel guilty for being born inside it.”
That was the first full truth she had spoken.
No one rescued her.
No one attacked.
Good.
She continued.
“I told myself I was teaching discipline. I was teaching resentment.”
The widow nodded.
That answer carried more weight than any strategy speech.
Corinne did not win the seat.
Thomas Bellini did.
She received the second-highest support.
I watched her face when the result came.
Pain.
Humiliation.
Then something else.
Acceptance.
She congratulated Thomas.
Not warmly.
But honestly enough.
Later she looked at me.
“You expected me to lose.”
“No.”
“Did you want me to?”
“No.”
That surprised her.
I continued.
May you like
“I wanted the result not to belong to me.”
For the first time, she understood what our father should have done years earlier.
