Chapter 6 - THE FIRST DINNER AFTER
Arthur was released eighteen months later.
Less powerful.
Smaller empire.
Several companies sold.
Illegal businesses dismantled or seized.
His legitimate hotel group survived under independent management.
Arthur returned to a townhouse, not his old penthouse.
Less security.
More paperwork.
Bruno older now.
Grayer around the muzzle.
Still enormous.
Maeve saw Arthur three weeks after release.
Not on day one.
Not at the gate.
Three weeks.
He texted:
Would you have dinner with me?
She replied:
Public place.
His answer:
I assumed.
They met at a neighborhood Italian restaurant.
Arthur looked older.
Not dramatically.
Just human.
Maeve liked that more than she expected.
“Bruno?”
“At home.”
“Traitor.”
“He loves you.”
“Correct.”
They ordered.
Then Arthur said:
“I owe you something.”
Maeve sighed.
“If this becomes money—”
“No.”
“An apology.”
“For?”
He looked at her.
“Too many things.”
“Specific.”
She liked specific.
“For trying to keep you outside the decision about my sentencing.”
“Yes.”
“For assuming saving my life gave me some permanent right to your attention.”
She paused.
“That one took you a while.”
“Yes.”
“For thinking I could protect people by controlling information.”
“Yes.”
He continued.
“And for the first night.”
“What first night?”
“When you freed me.”
“I told you not to go to a hospital because I thought my judgment mattered more than yours.”
“You were bleeding.”
“Still.”
Maeve nodded.
“Apology accepted.”
Arthur looked surprised.
“That easy?”
“Acceptance isn't erasure.”
Good.
Then:
“I owe you one.”
His eyebrows rose.
“For?”
“I treated you like every bad thing around you automatically belonged to you.”
He waited.
Maeve continued:
“Some did.”
“Yes.”
“Some didn’t.”
“Yes.”
“I had to learn the difference too.”
Arthur smiled.
That became their first actual date.
Not the alley.
Not the rescue.
May you like
Not the court case.
Dinner after both had lives again.
