Chapter 20 - The Last Wolf
Almost a year after the night Clara entered Vale Global, we gathered in Vermont.
Marcus stood near the new trees.
Older Emma arrived from New York.
Mateo came with me.
Clara brought little Emma.
Luca came with Noah and Isabella, who was finally strong enough to travel.
Victor was not there because the court would not permit it, but he sent no speech and no request for forgiveness.
For once, silence was the correct thing he gave us.
Nobody knew how to behave like a normal family.
That became funny after a while.
Noah complained about the cold.
Little Emma chased him through the grass.
Older Emma argued with Marcus about the placement of one crooked tree.
Mateo cooked badly and insisted the smoke was intentional.
Clara laughed.
Luca laughed with her.
The sound stopped me because I had not heard my brother laugh freely since we were young.
Little Emma eventually sat beneath one of Marcus's trees with her sketchbook.
I walked over and crouched beside her.
She had drawn two wolves.
One black.
One gray.
They stood beside a house with a red door.
There were no guns.
No vaults.
No numbers.
No money.
"What do the wolves do now?" I asked.
Emma considered the question seriously.
"They don't guard anything."
"Why not?"
She looked up at me.
"Because nobody is trying to steal it anymore."
Behind us, Luca called her name.
She ran toward him.
Noah chased after her.
Clara followed more slowly.
Marcus came to stand beside me.
"Your grandfather used to say a wolf alone protects territory," he said.
"Two wolves protect each other."
I watched the people in front of me.
Broken.
Complicated.
Alive.
For decades we thought the inheritance was the money.
We were wrong.
The inheritance was the truth.
The money had taught us to fear one another.
The truth finally gave us the chance to become a family.
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And when we stopped protecting the empire, we finally learned how to protect each other.
THE END
