Chapter 7 - Nobody Should Be Alone
Six months later, my life looked very different.
Vincent Russo was awaiting trial.
Anthony Moretti had agreed to cooperate.
Michael testified about Gabriel's final night and stepped away from the family businesses.
We weren't completely repaired.
Maybe brothers never completely repair certain things.
But we were speaking again.
As for my companies, federal investigators looked closely.
Some businesses were sold.
Others were restructured.
I shut down anything I couldn't defend in daylight.
Marcus called it reckless.
I called it exhausting.
Maria called it overdue.
She was good at that.
Telling me things nobody else dared to say.
One Saturday evening, I came home from a meeting and found Sofia standing in the living room wearing yellow pajamas.
She pointed at the sofa.
“Sit.”
I stared at her.
“Excuse me?”
“Sit.”
Maria appeared from the kitchen.
“She's been waiting twenty minutes.”
“For what?”
Sofia grabbed my hand.
“You're tired.”
“I've survived.”
“Sit.”
I looked at Maria.
“Your daughter is becoming very controlling.”
“I wonder where she learned it.”
I sat.
Sofia immediately placed the same gray blanket over me.
Six months earlier, that blanket had cracked something open inside me.
Now Sofia climbed onto the sofa beside me.
“Mr. Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“Do you still get lonely?”
Maria stopped in the doorway.
I looked at Sofia.
“Sometimes.”
She considered that.
Then she leaned against my arm.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Now you're not.”
Simple.
No negotiation.
No price.
Maria walked over.
I looked at her.
“Sit.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Was that an order?”
“A request.”
“You're learning.”
She sat on my other side.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Sofia pulled something from beneath the blanket.
A framed photograph.
Gabriel.
Maria inhaled.
“I found it in Grandma's box,” Sofia said.
She handed it to me.
I looked at the man I'd once believed betrayed me.
A man who had died trying to tell me the truth.
“We should put it somewhere,” I said.
Maria watched me.
“Where?”
I stood and carried the photograph toward the fireplace.
There were no family photographs there.
There had never been any.
I placed Gabriel's picture on the mantel.
Maria's eyes filled.
“Daniel…”
“He protected my family before I knew his.”
I crouched in front of Sofia.
“Your dad was brave.”
She smiled.
“I know.”
“And he loved you very much.”
“I know that too.”
Maria looked away, wiping her cheek.
Sofia suddenly whispered, “Mommy cries when she's happy.”
Maria laughed.
“Thank you, Sofia.”
“You're welcome.”
I returned to the sofa.
Maria sat beside me.
Her hand rested near mine.
Not touching.
I closed the distance.
Our fingers intertwined.
No contracts.
No bargains.
No price.
Sofia noticed immediately.
“Are you holding hands?”
Maria blushed.
“No.”
“Yes, you are.”
I nodded solemnly.
“Your mother started it.”
“I absolutely did not.”
Sofia giggled.
Then she squeezed between us.
Outside, guards still watched the gates.
Cameras still covered the estate.
Enemies still existed.
I was still Daniel Hale.
I hadn't suddenly become harmless.
But I had changed one rule.
The most important one.
My father had spent his life teaching me never to show anyone what could hurt me.
He'd been wrong.
Maria could hurt me.
Sofia could hurt me.
Loving them meant accepting that.
But it also meant coming home to something stronger than fear.
Later that night, Sofia fell asleep against my chest.
Maria whispered, “You know she's going to expect you to carry her upstairs.”
“I have employees for that.”
Maria gave me a look.
I sighed.
“Fine.”
I lifted Sofia carefully.
Halfway to the stairs, she opened one sleepy eye.
“Mr. Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“You forgot the blanket.”
I looked back.
Maria was standing there holding it.
She smiled.
“I've got it.”
Something about those three words stopped me.
I'd spent most of my life believing I had to carry everything alone.
The business.
The danger.
The betrayals.
The ghosts.
Now Maria stood behind me with the blanket, while Sofia slept safely in my arms.
I smiled.
“Come on, Maria.”
She followed.
And for the first time since I was six years old, I walked upstairs knowing there would still be people in the house when I woke up.
People who weren't there because they feared me.
People who weren't there because I paid them.
They were there because they wanted to be.
Sofia had been right from the beginning.
May you like
Nobody should be alone.
And finally, I wasn't
