Chapter 14 - THE HOUSE ON COMMONWEALTH AVENUE
Six months changed Boston.
At least, it changed my part of it.
The old bookstore became the Bennett-Vescari Community House.
Evelyn refused every suggestion involving marble floors.
“People who need help don't need to be reminded someone else is rich.”
So we built warm rooms.
A kitchen.
Emergency beds.
A small medical office.
A legal clinic.
And a reading room overlooking Commonwealth Avenue.
I quit my administrative job.
For the first time in my life, I wasn't stretching a paycheck until Friday.
I was building something.
Dominic changed too.
Newspapers still wrote about his family.
Some stories were ugly.
Some deserved to be.
But his companies became transparent.
Contracts changed.
People who wanted the old way left.
Michael returned to Boston permanently.
Rafe became head of security for the legitimate businesses and went home every night to his daughter.
Daniel testified, then disappeared somewhere warm.
Evelyn divided her time between London and Boston, although everyone knew Boston had won.
As for Dominic and me…
That was complicated.
Mostly because Dominic Vescari could negotiate million-dollar contracts but became strangely incompetent whenever I asked what we were.
One evening, I found him repairing a broken shelf in the community library.
“You're terrible at that.”
“I own construction companies.”
“You don't personally construct things.”
He looked offended.
The shelf immediately collapsed.
I laughed until I cried.
Then he kissed me.
No warning.
No bodyguards.
No danger.
Just Dominic.
When he stepped back, he looked nervous.
I had never seen him nervous.
“So,” I said, “was that a hostile takeover?”
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“I've spent most of my life believing anything I loved would eventually be used against me.”
My smile disappeared.
He continued.
“Then you opened your door to my mother when you had absolutely nothing to gain.”
“She needed help.”
“That answer ruined my life.”
I laughed softly.
“Good.”
He took my hand.
“I love you.”
Three words.
No dramatic speech.
No expensive gift.
They meant more because they came from a man who had spent his whole life afraid to say them.
“I love you too.”
A slow smile appeared.
Then Evelyn's voice came from behind the bookshelf.
“Finally.”
We jumped apart.
She stepped out holding tea.
“You were listening?”
“I am elderly. Not dead.”
Dominic groaned.
But Evelyn had one more surprise.
She handed me an envelope.
Inside was an old photograph of my mother.
Sarah was standing beside a seventeen-year-old Dominic in a hospital hallway.
On the back, my mother had written:
HE'S A GOOD BOY. I HOPE HE GETS A SECOND CHANCE.
Dominic stared at the words for a long time.
May you like
Then he looked at me.
My mother had believed in him eighteen years before I ever met him.
