Chapter 14
Nora was seven when Gabriele went to prison.
She had spent the previous year moving gradually between his home and Catherine’s so the transition would not feel like disappearance.
Nobody told her:
Daddy went on a business trip.
Nobody repeated Theresa’s old lie:
Daddy abandoned you.
Catherine and a child therapist helped explain it in language Nora could understand.
“Your dad broke serious laws.”
“Did he hurt me?”
“No.”
“Did he hurt other people?”
Catherine paused.
“Some of the things he admitted being part of hurt people.”
Nora cried.
Then she asked to call him.
The first call was difficult.
“You left.”
Gabriele could have said:
I didn’t choose prison.
He could have blamed prosecutors.
Enemies.
His family.
Theresa.
Instead:
“I made choices before you were old enough to understand them, and those choices are why I’m here.”
“Do you still want me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you do bad things?”
Gabriele looked through the video screen.
“I wanted things I thought mattered more than they did.”
Nora did not understand completely.
She did not need to.
Catherine remained guardian under court supervision.
Beacon paid appropriate trust expenses directly.
Tuition.
Therapy.
Health care.
Activities.
Nothing went through the criminal organization.
Nothing depended on Gabriele sending a bodyguard with cash.
Once a year Beacon sent Nora’s guardian a formal accounting.
May you like
Boring pages.
Audrey would have loved them.
