Chapter 8 - VINCENT TOLD ME WHAT MY MOTHER NEVER DIDMy mother did not leave the Moretti family because Vincent threatened her.
That was the simplified story of my childhood.
The truth was worse because it involved love.
My grandfather had used family loyalty as debt.
Jobs.
Housing.
Legal problems.
Money.
Someone always helped.
Nobody ever left owing nothing.
Sofia hated it.
Vincent accepted it.
At twenty-eight, Vincent became increasingly involved in the family’s operations.
Sofia confronted him.
She wanted him out.
He refused.
Then my father lost his job.
My grandfather offered to fix everything.
A business.
An apartment.
Money.
My mother said no.
My father said yes.
Their marriage collapsed partly under that difference.
Eventually Sofia took me and left.
“She blamed you?” I asked.
Vincent nodded.
“Somewhat.”
“For what?”
“I told her she was foolish to reject protection.”
I could hear my mother answering.
Maybe with language not appropriate for a child.
Vincent continued.
“She told me protection that cannot be refused is control.”
That sentence felt like a hand closing around the entire story.
My marriage.
My family.
Derek.
Even Vincent.
“Was she right?”
“Yes.”
No hesitation.
“Then why didn’t you leave too?”
“I liked power.”
I stared at him.
He did not look away.
“That’s it?”
“It solved problems.”
“For you.”
“Often.”
Again, no clean redemption.
That was strangely comforting.
I asked about his current life.
He had legitimate companies.
Restaurants.
Logistics.
Property.
He also admitted there were parts of his past he would not pretend were respectable.
I did not need details.
This was not a confession booth.
Then he told me something about Derek.
“Someone approached me two years ago.”
My stomach tightened.
“Derek?”
“No.”
“A man named Paul Castell.”
I didn’t know the name.
“He represented people Derek was trying to borrow from. He asked whether marrying Sofia Moretti’s daughter made Derek part of my family.”
“What did you say?”
“No.”
“That’s all?”
“I said if Derek used my name, he did so without permission.”
My skin went cold.
Two years ago.
Derek knew people were checking.
Yet he continued.
Vincent looked at me.
“That’s why his fear when he saw me upstairs was not simply because he knew my reputation.”
I waited.
“He knew he had been warned.”
There was the second major layer.
Derek had not mistakenly assumed marriage gave him access.
He had been told directly it did not.
And continued using the implication anyway.
May you like
The question now was why he had become more desperate during the final six months.
The answer was waiting inside one of his failed deals.
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