Chapter 13 - What Dominic Asked For
Elena didn't want to meet him.
I told her she didn't have to.
“He doesn't deserve closure from you.”
“I know.”
She eventually agreed for one reason.
“I want him to see I'm not scared anymore.”
The meeting occurred with appropriate supervision.
Dominic looked smaller.
Not physically.
Socially.
No club.
No employees jumping when he spoke.
No Bellini machine insulating him.
Elena sat opposite him.
He began:
“I’m sorry.”
She waited.
“For firing you.”
Still she waited.
“For threatening your housing.”
Silence.
“For what happened with the money.”
Elena finally spoke.
“And Maeve?”
Dominic looked confused.
“What about her?”
That was almost enough to end the meeting.
Elena stood.
Dominic panicked.
“Wait.”
She stopped.
He swallowed.
“I shouldn't have said what I said.”
“What did you call her?”
His eyes dropped.
“Street trash.”
Elena stared at him.
“My three-year-old gave your uncle everything she had.”
“I know.”
“You knocked it onto the floor.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
He couldn't answer.
Finally:
“I was angry.”
“At her?”
“No.”
“Then why humiliate her?”
Dominic rubbed his hands together.
“Because she made me feel…”
He stopped.
“What?”
“Small.”
Elena almost laughed.
“A three-year-old?”
“She gave him everything.”
His voice cracked.
“And I'd spent my whole life being told I deserved everything.”
There it was.
Not redemption.
Recognition.
Dominic admitted seeing Maeve give away her coins had irritated him because generosity made his own greed visible.
He wanted the scene gone.
So he attacked the people in it.
Then he asked Elena:
“Can you forgive me?”
She answered immediately.
“No.”
Dominic flinched.
Maybe he expected mercy because he finally apologized.
Elena continued.
“Maybe someday I won't feel angry.”
She looked directly at him.
“But forgiveness isn't something you get because you finally understand what you did.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
Then:
“Can you tell Maeve I'm sorry?”
Elena considered it.
“I'll tell her when she's old enough to understand.”
Dominic whispered:
“Thank you.”
The meeting ended.
Elena walked outside.
I was waiting.
“How was it?”
“He apologized.”
“And?”
“I didn't forgive him.”
“Good.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You're supposed to say that's my choice.”
“It is.”
She smiled.
Then:
“I don't hate him anymore either.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because he doesn't control whether Maeve eats anymore.”
Freedom.
That was what justice gave Elena.
Not revenge.
The ability to stop organizing her life around powerful people's moods.
Then she handed me something Dominic had asked her to give me.
The metal name badge.
The one I ripped from his jacket.
On the back, Dominic had scratched four words.
**Dad would've been ashamed.**
I stared at it.
Maybe.
But shame wasn't where I wanted his story to end.
May you like
Accountability had to become something useful.
And months later, Dominic made one decision nobody expected.
