Chapter 5 - Clara had already changed me
Lucille said:
“She replaced all of us.”
I understood the sentence only later.
When Clara arrived, I changed rules.
No guns visible inside my house.
No business meetings near nursery.
No unvetted visitors.
No alcohol-fueled midnight gatherings.
No family members using my home as neutral territory for disputes.
Then more.
I removed myself from two businesses federal investigators had scrutinized.
Sold interests.
Closed one club.
Stopped funding a cousin’s “security company.”
Refused to intervene when an uncle faced indictment.
People said:
Dominic got soft.
They were wrong.
I got specific.
A three-month-old does not care about your reputation.
She cares whether the room is warm.
Whether someone feeds her.
Whether the person holding her is safe.
That kind of responsibility makes certain forms of power look pathetic.
Lucille hated what Clara represented.
May you like
A future in which I might choose my child over the Bellucci machine.
She was correct.
