The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 25
The group chat went silent for a long time.
No one could refute her.
Ava had taken advantage of their guilt over the dead, and she had grown accustomed to the priority that came with being a protected orphan.
But the people who had pushed me aside, again and again, were my own parents and my brother.
They had all made their choices.
No one was innocent.
I didn’t read the rest of their argument.
I closed the file and archived the emails.
The next day, I went to student affairs to change my emergency contact.
That line had always listed my mother.
She was the first person the system was supposed to notify if anything happened to me.
But fifty-eight unanswered calls had already proven that name was useless.
I deleted *Maria Vitale*.
Then I filled in Elena Albright’s number.
Before I submitted the form, I texted her.
*If it’s inconvenient, I can leave it blank.*
She replied almost immediately.
*Of course it’s not inconvenient.*
*But I hope that number never has to be called.*
I looked at her message and smiled.
That night, I updated the visitor access requirements for my dorm, the lab, and my workplace.
Without my direct consent, no member of the Vitale family was allowed entry.
I also informed campus security that any vehicle sent by the Ferraro Family did not count as authorization from me.
It wasn’t revenge.
It was just me, finally learning how to set the permissions on my own life.
A few days later, Ava sent me a very long email.
She said that after they returned from California, my parents stopped buying her luxury goods.
My mother made her sell any gifts that hadn’t been used yet.
After Marco moved out, he stopped helping her with her college applications.
The last line was:
*Are you happy now? You finally destroyed my family.*
I replied with only one sentence:
“I didn’t destroy that family. I just left it.”