Don Bowed To Me Chapter 12
“Apology accepted.”
“You can go now. I fly back to New York in a few days. There’s still a lot to close out.”
“New York?”
Elliot’s eyes lit up. He put his phone away.
“Hazel, we’ve never been to your place in the city. Let’s come stay. See how you’re set up.”
“You can come,” I said.
“I’ll take you all out to dinner. I’ll cover the hotel.”
My mother’s smile faltered.
“Hotel?”
Her brow creased.
“Why would we stay in a hotel? One of your licensing fees was ten million dollars. You must have a real house in Manhattan by now. Family doesn’t stay in a hotel when they can stay with you. It creates distance.”
Elliot chimed in.
“Exactly. A house that size, sitting empty, and Family sleeps at a hotel? That’s a waste.”
I looked at them and smiled.
“I do have a house.”
“But it’s my house. It has nothing to do with any of you.”
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.
The smile on my mother’s face froze in place.
“When I came back to Newport this weekend, I stayed in a hotel. Didn’t I?”
Nobody had an answer for that.
My mother’s expression cycled through several shades, and in the end she said nothing.
Elliot pretended to study the hotel welcome book on the console.
My father cleared his throat.
I held the door open.
“If there’s nothing else, please. I’m busy.”
My mother paused in the doorway on her way out. Her voice dropped.
“Hazel… you’re not going to forgive me. Are you.”
“Yes.” I said.
And closed the door.
Back in New York.
Pieces of news drifted to me from time to time.
Ethan had co-signed a six-figure loan for an associate out of the Colombo crew. A guy running a construction outfit up in Rhode Island.
The guy skipped. The bank came knocking.
The Colombos didn’t lift a finger to protect Ethan, because he wasn’t made. He was a name on the edge of the Family, and the Family didn’t step in for edges.
His wife took the kids and moved back to her parents’ place. Divorce lawyers were involved.
Emma, my assistant, set a coffee down on my desk and mentioned it in passing.
“Dr. Vitale. My cousin told me Melanie Ricci got married last week.”
I didn’t look up.
“Oh.”
“She met the guy on Hinge. Married in six weeks.”
“He introduced himself as an associate of one of the smaller Boston crews. Turned out he was carrying a hundred and fifty K in credit card debt and student loans. The Family connection was a story he told at bars.”
“They’re breaking dishes in the apartment every night. Her Facebook is one long string of ‘Adulthood is a scam’ posts.”
I gave a small hum.
My finger paused on the project schedule Emma had just brought in.
Next Wednesday. Marchetti defense subsidiary kickoff meeting.
Next Friday. Department of Defense classified briefing.
The Monday after. Flying to Boston for MIT board meeting.
The chaos in their lives didn’t take up a single line on that schedule.