Chapter 17
The waterfront venue reopened its pastry room after renovation.
Tessa invited us before the first private event.
Same room.
Different display cake.
This one was smaller.
Solid lower tier.
She made sure everyone knew.
Nora immediately crawled under the table to inspect it.
I sighed.
“Do not knock from inside anything.”
She giggled.
Micah stood beside Elena.
A year earlier, three knocks from a cake gave him his mother back.
Now Tessa handed him the first slice.
He looked at Elena.
“You want it?”
She studied the frosting.
Then nodded.
“Yeah.”
Small.
Important.
They ate cake together.
No hidden compartment.
No guards closing around anyone.
No Silas controlling the door.
The old rolling decoration cart had been repaired.
One wheel still squeaked.
I kept meaning to replace it.
Never did.
Nora heard the squeak and knocked three times on the table.
Everyone froze.
Then she laughed.
Elena laughed first.
Micah followed.
Eventually I did too.
That was how I knew the room no longer belonged to what happened there.
Later, Nora tugged my sleeve.
“Daddy.”
“Yes?”
“Who was Silas serving in the cake?”
I looked at Elena.
She answered.
“Me.”
Nora frowned.
“That’s weird.”
Perfect.
No grand horror.
No legend.
Weird.
Elena smiled.
“Very.”
Nora returned to her frosting.
I watched Micah talk to his mother about training, school, and a girl Elena clearly wanted more information about than he intended to give.
Normal problems.
Better problems.
Silas had tried to turn Micah into a future title.
He had turned Elena into a secret.
He had turned an entire family’s uncertainty into permission for his ambition.
In the end, none of those identities survived.
Micah was not a succession plan.
Elena was not a hidden liability.
Nora was not a witness to silence.
And I was not the only voice allowed to define Rossi.
Tessa rolled the new cake toward the door.
Nothing knocked from inside.
No one stopped it.
May you like
No one was hidden.
For once, dessert was only dessert.
