Chapter 11 - THE MATRIARCH’S RULE
Vivienne had governed the DeLuca family socially for thirty years.
Not legally.
That distinction had become invisible because everyone treated her preferences like rules.
Where Christmas happened.
Who sat where.
Which cousin worked for which business.
Who received introductions.
Who was invited to weddings.
Who got financial help.
Who did not.
Then grandchildren.
She believed descendants carried family continuity.
I had Dominic.
Bianca had none.
For years, Vivienne spoke about “balance.”
At first it meant money.
If Dominic received a trust contribution, Bianca received an investment in her business.
If I bought a new house, Vivienne found some way to help Bianca renovate hers.
I found it annoying.
Bianca found it humiliating.
Then triplets.
There was no balancing that event.
Four grandchildren from one child.
None from the other.
Vivienne’s worldview broke.
She started saying:
“Roman’s branch is becoming the family.”
Bianca answered:
“There aren’t branches. We’re alive.”
Vivienne disagreed.
Then she began imagining one triplet raised partly under Bianca’s household.
She called it:
Family stewardship.
My lawyer called it:
Meaningless.
A parent decides where his newborn sleeps.
Not a matriarch.
Not a surname.
Not a family council.
Vivienne believed law was secondary because the DeLucas had spent generations making private arrangements.
That belief had protected us from gossip.
It had also allowed her to confuse influence with authority.
Then Elena.
Vivienne never accepted that Elena became the center of decisions about the babies.
Before marriage, I could be pressured.
After Dominic, less.
After Elena nearly died from postpartum hemorrhage delivering triplets, not at all.
Vivienne interpreted Elena’s maternal authority as displacement.
That was her real grievance.
May you like
Not that Bianca lacked a baby.
That another woman had become more important to me than the matriarch.
