Chapter 4 - MATTEO
Matteo was not the villain.
I made that clear immediately.
Five years old.
Energetic.
Confused.
He believed the ball was his because adults kept putting it in his storage box.
When his father was banned temporarily from Villa Ravello pending security review, Matteo cried.
He asked why.
Conrad’s wife, Elena, called me.
Not furious.
Exhausted.
“What do I tell him?”
“The truth he can understand.”
“Which is?”
“His father frightened Eli with a metal rod and needs to stay away while adults deal with it.”
“He’ll ask whether Daddy is bad.”
“Then don’t tell him that.”
Silence.
Elena eventually admitted she hated the south-lawn fight.
“Conrad talks about Orchard House like Matteo’s birthright.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
Then:
“He says if we lose the lawn, Paolo’s branch disappears.”
That phrase again.
Disappear.
Nobody was being expelled.
Orchard House itself could still be allocated to Conrad if he paid the agreed value or accepted it against his share of estate interests.
He would have a house.
Land.
Access.
Family membership.
What disappeared was the image of Paolo’s branch holding a private kingdom beside the main villa.
Then Elena told me something I did not know.
Conrad had shown Matteo a hand-drawn map.
Blue line around Orchard House.
South lawn.
Flower beds.
Half the orchard.
“This is ours.”
Matteo later told another child:
“Don’t cross blue.”
The invisible line had been taught.
My son had crossed it for his own football.
Then the rod came down.
I felt anger return.
Nicholas stopped me before it became direction.
“You are not removing Conrad’s branch from anything because you’re angry.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Annoying.
Necessary.
The estate allocation proceeded through the existing process.
No punishment land grab.
Conrad’s conduct would be considered only where relevant to occupancy safety and cooperation, not as an excuse to confiscate economic rights.
May you like
Specific consequences.
Always.
