Chapter 9 - THE DAY CHILDREN WERE ALLOWED
One year after Mia walked into the forbidden study, the Castalano estate held its first employee family picnic.
Vincent hated the idea.
Renzo loved that he hated it.
Children covered the lawn.
Someone put inflatable castles beside the garden.
There were hot dogs.
Face painting.
A magician so bad even Mia looked concerned.
Vincent stood near the terrace watching fifty children behave like property damage with legs.
“This was your idea?”
He asked Denise.
“No.”
She pointed at me.
Traitor.
Vincent looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because staff have families.”
“I knew that.”
“Intellectually.”
His eyes narrowed.
I smiled.
Mia ran toward him.
She was four now.
Still fearless.
She stopped.
Folded her arms.
Lowered her eyebrows.
Tilted her head.
The face.
Vincent stared.
Then copied her.
Renzo saw.
The security staff saw.
One by one, people began laughing.
Not nervous laughter.
Real laughter.
Vincent let them.
That might have been the biggest change.
Then Mia handed him a drawing.
Three stick figures.
One labeled MOMMY.
One MIA.
One enormous figure with angry eyebrows.
Vincent looked offended.
“Why am I twice their size?”
“You’re old.”
“That does not answer the question.”
“You’re big.”
Better.
At the top she had written, with Denise’s help:
MR. GRUMPY
Vincent stared.
Then Renzo made the mistake of reading it aloud.
Vincent turned slowly.
Renzo immediately walked away.
Mia chased him.
I laughed until my stomach hurt.
For years, people had feared Vincent Castalano’s expression.
A four-year-old had turned it into a family joke.
No empire had collapsed.
No miracle.
Just something more useful.
May you like
The fear stopped being sacred.
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