Chapter 13
Honora requested a mediated meeting with Matteo before sentencing.
He agreed.
No Posy.
No Luca.
No armed entourage.
His lawyer sat nearby.
Honora looked thinner than she had at the banquet.
Still elegant.
Still controlled.
She began:
“I never meant to send Posy down the entire staircase.”
Matteo stared at her.
“You shoved her backward.”
“I wanted her away from me.”
“There was a staircase behind her.”
“I know.”
“You knew then.”
Honora said nothing.
Matteo continued.
“Why her?”
“She told me Luca had betrayed me.”
“He canceled a transaction.”
“He let me spend fourteen months structuring a deal.”
“You were being paid.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
Matteo leaned back.
“You thought my brother belonged to your deal.”
Honora’s eyes hardened.
“I thought he had a spine.”
“He filed bankruptcy rather than let you take the land.”
“He destroyed his own company.”
“The club is open.”
“At half the valuation he could have had.”
“Maybe.”
Matteo shrugged.
“Still his decision.”
That bothered her.
Control remained the wound.
Then he asked:
“Did you want the casino to fail after closing?”
Honora considered her answer carefully.
“I wanted optionality.”
“Normal word.”
“It is a normal word.”
“For hoping someone else’s business becomes your development site.”
“If Belladonna succeeded, we made money. If it didn’t, the land had higher use.”
“Did Luca understand that?”
“He had lawyers.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Silence.
Honora finally said:
“Not fully.”
“Because you didn’t tell him fully.”
“He should have read harder.”
Matteo almost smiled.
There it was.
The same defense Luca had used privately against himself.
But then Matteo returned to Posy.
“My daughter told you Luca sent me.”
“Yes.”
“And that made you angry.”
“Yes.”
“So you took her invitation.”
“She was taunting me.”
“She was eight.”
“I know.”
“You said her name meant nothing.”
Honora looked away.
“Then you pushed her.”
“I lost control.”
Matteo nodded.
For months, he had wanted Honora to say something profound enough to explain it.
There was nothing.
She had been cruel.
Angry.
Entitled.
A person could engineer sophisticated financial pressure and still commit violence for embarrassingly simple reasons.
Then Honora asked:
“Did you ever consider what your name did to people in that room?”
Matteo looked at her.
“You think because they fear you, Posy gets to walk around like a princess.”
“No.”
“You think everyone belongs beneath your family.”
“No.”
She laughed.
“You are going to sit there and pretend morality?”
Matteo did not.
“I have done things you would use against me if this were about me.”
He leaned forward.
“It isn’t.”
That stopped her.
“You shoved my daughter. The fact that I’m a bad man does not turn you into a good woman.”
Honora’s face changed.
Then she whispered:
“Luca used you to intimidate me.”
Matteo nodded once.
“He did.”
That surprised her.
“And I told him he was wrong.”
She stared.
“He should have come himself. He should have canceled Posy’s invitation. He should have listened when she told him you treated her badly.”
Honora had expected a united-family mythology.
Matteo gave her accountability instead.
Then he stood.
“We’re done.”
She asked:
“Does Posy hate me?”
Matteo looked back.
May you like
“You don’t get to make her feelings about you useful.”
Then he left.
