Chapter 14 - Frank Without the Empire
Frank’s world became very small.
No estate.
No boardroom.
No assistants waiting outside doors.
No employees calling him sir because their salaries depended on it.
For the first time since childhood, Frank Rossetti had no kingdom.
Months passed before Damon agreed to meet him.
The meeting took place in a counselor’s office.
Vivian did not attend.
When Damon returned home, he looked exhausted.
“How was it?”
“Awful.”
She waited.
“He apologized.”
Vivian was surprised.
“For what?”
“At first? For losing his temper.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“I told him.”
Damon sat.
“Then he apologized for the party.”
“And?”
“I asked him why.”
“What did he say?”
Damon looked toward Leo’s bedroom.
“He said he wanted Leo to become stronger.”
Vivian sighed.
“Still not there.”
“No. But then I asked about Thomas.”
Frank had cried.
Damon had never seen his father cry.
“He said after Thomas died, his father told him crying was disrespectful because winners don’t mourn losers.”
Vivian closed her eyes.
Cruelty could travel through generations with terrifying efficiency.
“What did you say?”
“I told him Thomas wasn’t a loser.”
Damon’s voice cracked.
“And neither was he.”
Vivian took his hand.
Frank began therapy.
Not because anyone forced him.
Because Damon made it a condition of continued contact.
Leo still did not see him.
That remained Leo’s choice.
Months later, Frank wrote Leo another letter.
This time Vivian read it first at Leo’s request.
It contained no excuses.
Frank wrote that tying him to the post had been wrong.
Calling him weak had been wrong.
Making Olivia compete with him had been wrong.
He said Leo owed him nothing.
Vivian handed the letter to her son.
Leo read slowly.
Then he placed it in a drawer.
“Do you want to answer?”
“Not today.”
“Okay.”
A week later, he drew a picture.
It showed an old man sitting on a bench.
A little boy stood far away.
Between them was a path.
Leo gave it to Vivian.
“What does it mean?”
“He can come closer someday.”
Vivian’s eyes filled.
“But not yet?”
Leo shook his head.
“Not yet.”
She hugged him.
Forgiveness did not need to be immediate.
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Healing did not require forgetting.
A path could exist without forcing anyone to walk it before they were ready.
