Chapter 19 - The Dinner Before Goodbye
Two years after the night of the suitcases, Domenico decided to sell the mansion.
Everyone assumed Ruby would object.
She did not.
“Does new house have art room?”
“Yes.”
“Pool?”
“Maybe.”
“Gold chair?”
Domenico smiled.
“We can bring it.”
“Okay.”
That was it.
The mansion had protected them.
Failed them.
Held Sofia’s memories.
Held Valentina’s mistakes.
Held Marcus’s secrets.
It did not need to hold their future.
Domenico wanted a smaller house closer to Ruby’s school and his office.
Still comfortable.
Still beautiful.
But less like an institution.
More like somewhere two people actually lived.
Clara supported the decision.
“You spend half your life walking between rooms nobody uses.”
“That is architectural criticism.”
“It is common sense.”
The final family dinner before the move was deliberately small.
Domenico.
Ruby.
Clara.
Domenico’s mother.
Adrian stopped by with dessert.
Rachel came late.
No business donors.
No polished strangers.
The enormous white-flower centerpiece had never been replaced.
Ruby hated giant centerpieces now because “you can’t see people.”
Instead she put three yellow flowers in a glass jar.
Her gold chair remained in the same place.
Before dinner Ruby disappeared upstairs.
She returned dragging the cream-colored suitcase with the rabbit tag.
Domenico stared.
“What is that?”
“My stuff.”
“For moving day?”
“No.”
She opened it.
Inside were objects she had chosen from the mansion.
A photograph of Sofia laughing.
Bunny.
Her first-grade medal.
Three drawings.
Valentina’s birthday card.
And the red notebook.
Domenico touched the notebook.
“You kept this?”
“Yes.”
He turned pages carefully.
The old drawings remained.
Blue papers.
Marcus.
The dark storage room.
The empty chair.
Then later drawings changed.
Yellow walls.
Green bedroom.
A house.
Tables full of people.
One showed Valentina sitting in a separate chair across from Ruby.
Domenico looked at his daughter.
“You remember all this?”
“Some.”
“Does it make you sad?”
Ruby shrugged.
“Sometimes.”
“Scared?”
“Not now.”
He nodded.
She pointed to the original drawing of the storage room.
“I was little.”
“You were five.”
“I’m seven.”
“Ancient.”
She frowned.
“You’re more ancient.”
“Cruel.”
Ruby repacked the notebook.
At dinner, Clara raised a glass.
“To smaller houses.”
Everyone laughed.
Adrian added, “To fewer contractors.”
Rachel said, “To proper conflict disclosures.”
Ruby stared at the adults.
“You’re boring.”
Domenico lifted his glass.
“To Ruby.”
She smiled.
“To Bunny.”
Everyone was required to toast Bunny.
Halfway through dessert, the doorbell rang.
A courier delivered a final box addressed to Domenico.
Inside were several personal belongings returned from evidence storage after Marcus’s case.
An old construction notebook.
A flash drive.
And one photograph.
Domenico stopped.
It showed Sofia, Valentina and Ruby together at a museum fundraiser.
Ruby was barely two.
Sofia stood in the center laughing.
Valentina held Ruby.
Everyone looked happy.
Ruby climbed beside Domenico.
“Who?”
“You.”
“Baby.”
“Yes.”
“Mama.”
“Yes.”
“And Valentina.”
“Yes.”
Ruby studied it.
“Were they friends?”
“For a while.”
“Before mean?”
“Long before.”
Ruby touched Valentina’s face.
“Can I keep?”
Domenico hesitated.
Then realized his hesitation was about himself.
“Of course.”
Ruby placed the photograph inside her suitcase.
Not because it erased what came later.
Because what came later did not erase what came before either.
At the end of dinner, everyone left except Clara.
She would continue managing the new household but no longer live on-site.
Domenico walked through the mansion alone.
Sofia’s morning room.
Ruby’s green bedroom.
The yellow art room.
Then the dining room.
Ruby was there.
Sitting in her gold chair.
“Bedtime.”
“Last sit.”
Domenico sat beside her.
She looked toward the dark hallway where her suitcases had once waited.
Now moving boxes stood there.
Her belongings were packed again.
This time she had helped.
This time she knew where they were going.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Remember when Valentina said I sleep storage?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you let her.”
The sentence hit him harder than anything in two years.
Domenico looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known more.”
Ruby thought.
“You came home.”
“Yes.”
“You picked me up.”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
Apparently that mattered too.
Domenico touched the back of her chair.
“You ready for the new house?”
Ruby smiled.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She climbed down.
Then stopped.
“The chair.”
“I’ll have movers take it.”
Ruby shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“We take it.”
“Ruby, that chair weighs approximately the same as you.”
“Important.”
Domenico laughed.
“Fine.”
Together, they dragged the ridiculous gold chair three feet before Clara came in and told them both to stop destroying the floor.
Ruby laughed so hard she fell against Domenico.
This time, when she ended up on the marble, she was not crying.
And the chair had not been taken from her.
May you like
They were carrying it somewhere new.
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