Chapter 6 - The Bowmont Table Finally Broke
Marjo Bowmont sat alone in the rehabilitation center chapel.
Delphine found her there at 3:14 in the morning.
Casius waited near the doorway.
Marjo looked twenty years older than she had at the dinner table.
“Where is Matteo?” Delphine asked.
“Gone.”
“Why were you with him?”
Marjo looked at her oldest daughter.
“To end it.”
Delphine laughed bitterly.
“You've had eleven years.”
“I know.”
That answer silenced her.
Marjo opened her purse.
She removed an envelope.
Inside were documents.
The original medical records from Delphine's warehouse injury.
A report Casius had never seen.
The fire had not been caused by a gas leak.
Investigators initially found evidence of an incendiary device.
The conclusion was changed forty-eight hours later.
Sterling paid for the change.
Marjo knew.
“You knew?” Delphine whispered.
“Afterward.”
“And you stayed.”
Marjo began crying.
“Yes.”
Delphine stared at her.
There were no excuses large enough for that.
Marjo knew it.
“I told myself I stayed to protect you and Camille.”
“Did it work?”
“No.”
The word was almost inaudible.
Marjo reached toward Delphine.
Delphine stepped back.
Marjo lowered her hand.
“I deserve that.”
“What does Matteo want?”
“Casius removed.”
Casius spoke from the doorway.
“Why?”
Marjo looked toward him.
“Because your father discovered what Matteo was doing.”
“What?”
“Selling access to Ferraro routes. Sterling helped him.”
Casius's face hardened.
“When your father confronted Matteo, he changed the succession plan.”
Casius understood.
Matteo had been replaced.
Then Matteo staged his death.
Waited.
Built alliances.
And when Casius became head, Matteo arranged the crash.
But why leave him alive?
Marjo answered before Casius asked.
“A dead leader becomes a martyr. A disabled leader…”
She could not finish.
Casius could.
“Becomes a question.”
Matteo wanted the families to question his strength.
His authority.
His ability to lead.
The wheelchair had not been an unintended consequence.
It had been the strategy.
For twenty months, Casius had thought survival was victory.
Now he realized his survival had been part of someone else's plan.
Delphine looked at him.
She saw the anger.
More importantly, she saw the wound beneath it.
Her hand found his.
Casius held it.
Marjo watched.
Something like regret crossed her face.
“I should have protected her,” she whispered.
Casius answered without looking at her.
“Yes.”
No comfort.
No absolution.
Just truth.
By morning, Salvatore called the table.
Same Bowmont dining room.
Same walnut table.
But everything had changed.
Sterling no longer sat at its head.
He sat along the side.
Camille beside him.
Marjo opposite.
Delphine entered with Casius.
Every person in the room looked at her.
This time she did not hide behind her hair.
Casius took his position.
No chair had been ceremoniously removed.
Gideon had arranged the room exactly as Casius requested.
A small difference.
An important one.
Salvatore placed the ledger before him.
“Sterling Bowmont.”
Sterling raised his head.
“You participated in an attempt to destabilize the Ferraro family.”
Sterling remained silent.
“You concealed evidence.”
Nothing.
“You permitted your daughter to carry the consequences of your actions for eleven years.”
Sterling finally spoke.
“This isn't about Delphine.”
Casius's voice came from the end of the table.
“It is now.”
Sterling looked at him.
Casius continued.
“For eleven years, you benefited from everyone believing she was too damaged to be seen.”
Delphine's eyes remained on her father.
“You taught an entire city to look away from her.”
Casius leaned forward.
“That was your mistake.”
Sterling sneered.
“You've known her less than a month.”
“And I saw more of her in four seconds than you did in eleven years.”
Nobody spoke.
Camille lowered her head.
Marjo cried silently.
Salvatore turned to Delphine.
“Do you have anything to say?”
The old Delphine might have said no.
The invisible daughter.
The woman who entered rooms quietly.
The woman trained to disappear.
She stood.
“Yes.”
Sterling stared.
Delphine looked directly at him.
“You told everyone the fire made me afraid of people.”
Sterling said nothing.
“It didn't.”
She touched her scar.
“You were afraid people would ask how this happened.”
Marjo closed her eyes.
“You told people I chose privacy.”
Delphine's voice remained steady.
“I didn't.”
Camille began crying.
“You made my survival embarrassing because admitting the truth would have been inconvenient.”
Sterling finally looked away.
Delphine smiled sadly.
“For eleven years, I thought you hid me because you were ashamed of my face.”
She paused.
“Now I know you hid me because you were afraid of my memory.”
The room went silent.
Then applause came from the doorway.
Slow.
Mocking.
Everyone turned.
Matteo Ferraro stood there.
Two men behind him.
Gideon reached inside his jacket.
Matteo smiled.
“Easy.”
Casius looked at his brother.
“You finally decided to stop hiding.”
Matteo entered.
“So did your wife.”
His eyes moved over Delphine.
“Beautiful improvement.”
Casius's expression changed.
Delphine squeezed his hand before he could react.
Matteo noticed.
“Interesting.”
He faced the table.
“I assume you've all heard Casius's version.”
Salvatore said:
“We've seen the ledger.”
“A ledger Sterling kept.”
Matteo shrugged.
“Convenient.”
Sterling suddenly stood.
“He ordered everything.”
Matteo looked at him.
Sterling pointed.
“The fire. The crash. Vescari. All of it.”
Matteo smiled.
“You're becoming emotional.”
“You promised Camille would marry you!”
Camille looked up sharply.
“What?”
Sterling froze.
Matteo's smile disappeared.
Camille stared at her father.
“You knew?”
Sterling said nothing.
“You knew who Michael was?”
Still nothing.
Camille stood.
“You let him use me?”
Sterling's silence answered.
Something finally broke in Camille.
For the first time, she understood Delphine.
Not completely.
Eleven years could not be understood in a moment.
But enough.
Their father had used both daughters differently.
One by hiding her.
The other by displaying her.
Neither had been loved as freely as she believed.
Matteo reached for his jacket.
Gideon drew first.
Several men around the table stood.
Matteo stopped.
Casius looked at him.
“It ends here.”
Matteo laughed.
“You still think this is about the table?”
“What is it about?”
“Father.”
Casius went still.
Matteo leaned forward.
“You think I staged my death because he replaced me?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
His smile returned.
“I staged it because he discovered who really ordered Mother's death.”
Casius's face emptied.
Their mother had died twenty-three years earlier.
A robbery.
At least that was what Casius had been told.
Matteo whispered:
“It wasn't a robbery.”
Casius stared at him.
May you like
Matteo's next words shattered the final lie holding the Ferraro family together.
“Sterling Bowmont paid for it.”
