Chapter 12
Rusk confirmed the transfer plan.
He also confirmed something Marco had not told me.
There was already a room prepared at the north property.
No windows.
One entrance.
Food for months.
Sofia listened without moving.
I wanted to destroy the room.
Burn the property.
Erase every place that had been built to contain her.
Then she spoke.
“Don’t.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because you’ll turn my prison into your revenge.”
That stopped me.
She was right.
Again.
Violence would make me feel powerful.
It would not give her four years back.
I sat beside her.
“What do you want?”
Sofia looked surprised.
Maybe because nobody had asked her that in years.
“I want daylight.”
My throat tightened.
“And Clara.”
“Okay.”
“I want Helena nowhere near her.”
“Done.”
“I want Marco to never decide whether I eat again.”
I looked at him.
“Done.”
Then Sofia hesitated.
“And I don’t want you deciding everything for me because you feel guilty.”
That one hit.
I almost defended myself.
Stopped.
“Okay.”
She studied me.
“You mean that?”
“I’m learning to.”
A small smile.
First one directed at me.
Across the room, Helena scoffed.
“This is exactly what she always did.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Made you weak.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
There it was.
The belief beneath four years of cruelty.
Helena continued.
“She made you ask instead of command. She made you care whether people agreed. She made you question traditions men stronger than you built.”
I stared at her.
“You destroyed my family because my wife made me listen?”
Helena’s voice sharpened.
“I protected the Caruso family from becoming soft.”
Sofia looked at her.
“No.”
Then she glanced toward the hidden passage.
“You protected yourself from becoming unnecessary.”
Helena went silent.
That was the wound.
Not tradition.
Not legacy.
Relevance.
May you like
Sofia had changed the way I led.
And Helena could not survive a family that no longer needed her permission.
