Chapter 10 - ONE DINNER
Dominic chose a restaurant with twelve tables.
Clara chose the table.
Near an exit.
He noticed.
Said nothing.
Good.
“You usually eat?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“At the diner you stared at coffee for an hour.”
“I was working.”
“You were watching Paulie embarrass himself.”
“That too.”
Dinner was strange because nothing happened.
No crisis.
No financial revelation.
No bodyguard interrupted them.
Dominic ate pasta.
Clara discovered he hated olives.
He discovered she loved terrible reality television.
“That seems inconsistent with your intelligence.”
“So does organized crime.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Fair.”
Halfway through dinner, he asked:
“Why Sullivan?”
Clara’s fork stopped.
“My new surname?”
“Yes.”
She considered refusing.
Instead:
“It was Daniel’s mother’s maiden name.”
Dominic nodded.
“Keeping part of him.”
“Choosing part of him.”
Different.
“Shaw was the name Nicholas knew.”
“And Clarissa?”
“My parents.”
“Clara?”
“Toby.”
Dominic waited.
“He was two when we disappeared. He couldn’t say Clarissa clearly.”
“So you became Clara.”
“Yes.”
“Do you regret it?”
“No.”
She looked at her hands.
“For years I thought Clara was a disguise.”
“And now?”
“She survived things Clarissa never had to.”
Dominic understood.
Then Clara asked:
“Why Vance?”
He looked surprised.
“That is my name.”
“I know. Why keep it?”
Silence.
His father.
Legacy.
Power.
Everything attached.
Finally:
“Because I spent years believing changing the name would mean admitting the name controlled me.”
“And now?”
“Now I think keeping it doesn’t prove the opposite.”
Interesting.
Neither of them tried to fix the other.
That was what made dinner bearable.
When Dominic drove Clara home, he stopped at the curb.
Did not walk her upstairs without asking.
Did not send a gift afterward.
At the entrance:
“Good night.”
“Good night.”
Clara started inside.
“Clara.”
She turned.
“Would you do this again?”
She thought about it.
“Yes.”
His expression barely changed.
But she saw it.
The memory of a smile.
That night, Toby was waiting awake.
“How was dinner?”
“Why are you awake?”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Bed.”
“Was it romantic?”
“Toby.”
“Did he wear the fancy watch?”
She stopped.
“How do you know about the watch?”
“He always wears it.”
Children noticed things too.
Sometimes more than adults.
May you like
And a week later—
Toby would notice something about Dominic that Clara had missed completely.
