They Never Saved Me A Seat So I Built My Own Table Chapter 13
Three days after Bruno left Austin, Matteo came.
Nico and Bianca were with him.
They reserved a private room at a restaurant near my office.
Five gifts sat on the table.
Five mugs, five bookmarks, five commemorative festival cards.
Even the chairs had been set perfectly—five of them.
Matteo pushed one of the graduation bears toward me.
“Your major and your name. Both correct this time.”
I looked at it.
“Thanks, but I don’t need it.”
His hand stopped in midair.
“Alessia, we’re family.”
“You can’t just walk away from your family because we made a few mistakes.”
I looked up at him.
“Am I the one walking away? Or was there never a place for me in that family to begin with?”
Matteo had no answer.
Nico pushed up his glasses, his eyes heavy with exhaustion.
“We neglected you. We know that.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“But I’m not obligated to spend the rest of my life waiting for you to prove that.”
The room fell silent.
Suddenly, Bianca started to cry.
“I’m sorry, cousin.”
“I really didn’t know it would hurt you so much.”
Through her tears, she explained that when she first came to live with us as a child, she was terrified of being sent away, so she was always desperate for attention.
Later, being the favorite became a habit, and she never realized that the things that should have been mine were slowly being diverted to her.
“I never meant to take anything from you,” she sobbed.
She reached out, as if to touch my arm.
“Please come back. I can give it all back to you.”
I drew back, avoiding her hand.
“No, you can’t.”
“When Matteo prepared gifts only for you, you knew I didn’t have one.”
“When Nico only ordered four pens, you knew that, too.”
“When Bruno rented an apartment on the same floor as you, you knew.”
Her crying hitched.
At last, I said the one thing they had all danced around, the one thing they refused to admit.