Chapter 8 - The Family They Built After Everything Fell Apart
A year later, the Castellano name meant something different.
Not less.
Just different.
Simon had walked away from the underground empire.
The legal businesses survived.
The legitimate businesses thrived.
But the estate had changed.
The gates were no longer manned by armed guards.
The west wing had been rebuilt.
And between the two tall windows in the main hall hung a new portrait.
Not of Eli alone.
The artist had painted all four of them.
Simon.
Marisol.
Eli.
Maddie.
Cordelia had insisted on hanging it where the old portrait had stood.
"Why there?" Maddie asked.
"Because that's where the family remembers."
Maddie thought about it.
Then nodded.
Eli stood in front of the portrait.
"I look weird."
Simon laughed.
"You look thirteen."
"I'm eleven."
"You're twelve."
"No."
"You're terrible at math."
"Mom says I'm good."
"Your mother is biased."
Marisol walked in.
"Your mother is always right."
Simon turned.
"I withdraw my statement."
They had become a family slowly.
Not because they ignored the past.
Because they talked about it.
Eli still had nightmares sometimes.
On those nights, Simon sat outside his bedroom.
Marisol still woke at every unfamiliar noise.
On those nights, Simon checked the locks without saying anything.
Maddie still asked impossible questions.
And Cordelia still ruled the kitchen like a queen.
But peace had finally become ordinary.
One afternoon, Marisol found Simon in the garden.
He was holding an envelope.
"What's that?"
He handed it to her.
Her name was written across the front.
She opened it.
Inside was a property deed.
The house belonged to her.
She stared.
"What is this?"
"Your house."
"I already have a place."
"You have an apartment."
"Which is fine."
"It's not safe."
"It was fine before."
"That was before you had two Castellano children fighting over the remote."
She smiled despite herself.
"You bought me a house?"
"I bought us a house."
She looked at him.
He shrugged.
"I thought if I asked you, you'd say no."
"Correct."
"So I bought it anyway."
She laughed.
"That's not romantic."
"I can do better."
He knelt.
Marisol's laughter disappeared.
"Simon."
"I know."
"You don't have to."
"I want to."
She looked at him.
He was not the man from the headlines.
He was not the boss people whispered about.
He was simply the man who had cried when his little brother hugged him.
"I love you."
Marisol's eyes filled.
"I love you too."
He held out a ring.
She stared at it.
"How long have you had that?"
"Nine months."
"Nine months?"
"I was waiting for the right moment."
"What was the right moment?"
Simon smiled.
"Apparently, while arguing with you about buying real estate."
She laughed.
"Yes."
He looked at her.
"Yes?"
"Yes."
Maddie's scream came from the porch.
"IS MOM MARRYING SIMON?"
Eli shouted back:
"YES!"
Cordelia yelled:
"Then someone get the champagne!"
Simon looked horrified.
"No."
Maddie ran toward them.
"Can I be the flower girl?"
Eli followed.
"Can I be best man?"
Simon looked at both children.
"Of course."
Marisol smiled.
The wedding was small.
No press.
No politicians.
No business partners.
Just family.
Tomás sat in the front row.
Cordelia cried.
Eli gave a speech that made everybody laugh.
Maddie dropped half the flowers before reaching the altar.
Simon didn't care.
He only saw Marisol.
The woman who had saved the child he believed he'd lost.
The woman who had never demanded anything from him.
The woman who had made him understand that power meant nothing if you had nobody to come home to.
After the ceremony, Simon and Marisol stood beneath the old oak tree.
"You know," she said, "I used to think the worst thing that ever happened to me was finding Eli."
He looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because I knew somebody would eventually come looking for him."
"And now?"
She smiled.
"Now I think finding him saved all of us."
Simon kissed her.
Across the lawn, Eli and Maddie were arguing about cake.
Tomás was laughing.
Cordelia was threatening to lock both children in the pantry until they behaved.
Simon looked around.
Then at Marisol.
"I spent seven years looking for my brother."
May you like
"And?"
"I found an entire family."
