Chapter 4
Corinne refused to leave the boutique.
My guards could have removed her.
I told them not to.
I wanted her to talk.
She stood near the shattered shoe display with one hand against her cheek and fury holding her upright.
“You’ve been waiting to take this from me.”
“No.”
“You never respected what I built.”
“I respected it enough to let you run it.”
Her laugh was bitter.
“There. Let me.”
I understood the grievance.
She had built the boutique into something valuable while operating beneath the Ferraro umbrella. In her mind, success transformed stewardship into ownership.
Fair argument in business.
Irrelevant to Ruby.
“Why her?”
Corinne folded her arms.
“Because somebody has to teach your daughter reality.”
“What reality?”
“That your name does not mean the world belongs to her.”
I looked at the trash bin.
“She wanted school shoes.”
“It starts with shoes.”
I almost smiled.
“What comes next?”
Corinne answered immediately.
“Expectation.”
There it was.
She had thought about this often.
“She walks into rooms and everyone bends because she’s your daughter.”
“She is four.”
“Exactly. And already people treat her like royalty.”
I stepped closer.
“Who?”
Silence.
“Give me one example.”
Nothing.
That mattered.
Corinne did not resent Ruby’s behavior.
She resented what Ruby represented.
My direct line.
My child.
The person people instinctively associated with the future of the family.
I looked at her.
“This isn’t about entitlement.”
She stared back.
“No?”
“No.”
I let the pause stretch.
“You are afraid people will give her a place you think should belong to someone else.”
Her expression changed.
Tiny.
Enough.
“Who?”
May you like
She looked away.
That was the first time I knew another child stood somewhere behind this.
