Chapter 4
I asked Nora why she never came to the estate.
She laughed.
“I did.”
Helena closed her eyes.
I noticed.
“When?”
“Six months after Sophie was born.”
I turned toward my mother.
Nora continued.
“I stopped believing the story.”
“About my death?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because one of your restaurants reopened after the supposed funeral.”
Fair.
Even grief does not usually reopen restaurants.
“I came here.”
My breathing slowed.
“What happened?”
“Your guards stopped me at the gate.”
I looked at my security chief.
He had worked for me only two years.
Wrong era.
“Who was running the gate?”
Helena answered immediately.
“They’re retired.”
Again.
Too fast.
I stared at her.
“You remember.”
She said nothing.
Nora continued.
“I told them I had Roman D’Angelo’s daughter.”
“What did they say?”
Her eyes filled.
“That you knew.”
My jaw tightened.
“They said you wanted nothing to do with us.”
I closed my eyes for one second.
Nora had stood outside my house carrying my daughter.
And men wearing my colors sent her away using my name.
“What happened after?”
“Helena came down.”
I opened my eyes.
My mother stared straight ahead.
Nora’s voice became quieter.
“She told me if I ever brought Sophie back, the family would consider me a threat.”
Sophie was playing with the fringe on my sofa.
Three years old now.
Six months old then.
A threat.
I looked at Helena.
“You threatened a baby.”
She scoffed.
“I warned a desperate woman not to weaponize a child.”
Nora’s face twisted.
“You told me Roman would have us removed.”
“I said Roman had responsibilities.”
“No.”
Nora stepped closer.
“You said he chose the family over us.”
Silence.
I felt something break cleanly inside me.
Helena had spent my whole life teaching me that family came first.
May you like
Apparently she had never meant Nora or Sophie.
She meant herself.
