Chapter 16
Maisie stopped flinching when older men approached her.
Not all at once.
Slowly.
One family dinner.
Then another.
She still watched hands.
That hurt.
But she also started interrupting me again.
That helped.
One morning, I was speaking with two capos when she walked into my office holding a broken doll shoe.
“Daddy.”
Both men stopped.
Maisie looked at them.
Then at me.
“Can you fix this?”
I smiled.
“Give me five minutes.”
She frowned.
“Three.”
One capo laughed.
I looked at him.
He immediately stopped.
Maisie laughed harder.
Good.
The room relaxed.
Three months earlier she would have waited outside.
Frank taught her that adult rooms were dangerous.
I wanted her to learn something different.
Authority could have doors.
Not walls.
Later that evening, Sarah told me Maisie had said something at preschool.
“What?”
“Teacher asked who protects her.”
My chest tightened.
“And?”
“She said, ‘Daddy listens.’”
I went still.
Not Daddy fights.
Not Daddy scares people.
Not Daddy has guards.
Daddy listens.
That was the reputation I wanted with one person in the world.
Frank spent his life proving everyone obeyed him.
Maisie had given me a better standard.
May you like
She should never need to fear whether I would believe her.
Especially when the person she accused shared my blood.
