Chapter 23
At sixteen, Noah stopped seeing Grant for five months.
No new violence.
No secret.
No scandal.
An argument.
That mattered.
Noah wanted to spend a summer in Florence with Isabella’s design program.
Grant objected.
“You're sixteen.”
“Yes.”
“It's three months.”
“Eight weeks.”
“Still.”
Noah looked at him.
“Mom said yes.”
Grant’s face changed.
Small.
Old.
Noah saw.
“Why that face?”
“What face?”
“You hate Mom deciding.”
“No.”
Too fast.
Noah sat back.
Grant tried again.
“I worry your mother sometimes treats the Lombardi network as automatically safe.”
There was some truth there.
That made the mistake more dangerous.
Noah waited.
Grant continued.
“Florence program has Lombardi funding.”
“Yes.”
“I don't want you getting pulled into—”
“Dad.”
Grant stopped.
Noah looked at him.
“Is program safe?”
“Yes.”
“School says yes?”
“Yes.”
“Mom checked?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
Grant had no good answer.
History.
Fear.
Massimo.
A sixteen-year-old moving closer to the world Grant once helped Isabella escape.
“I don't like it.”
There.
Honest.
Noah nodded.
“You can not like.”
Grant almost smiled.
Then ruined it.
“I still think you shouldn't go.”
Noah became quiet.
“You don't decide.”
Technically, Grant still had parental rights under the current arrangement.
The trip required consent from both parents.
That made everything harder.
Grant refused.
For three weeks.
Isabella did not ask Massimo to intervene.
Massimo wanted to.
Desperately.
She said no.
Lawyers reviewed the issue.
The therapist reviewed it.
The program provided independent safety information.
Then Grant changed his answer.
Not because Massimo threatened him.
No one did.
He signed consent.
Noah asked:
“Why now?”
Grant answered:
“Because I realized I was using parental authority to settle an old argument with your mother's family.”
That was accurate.
“Do you still hate program?”
“No.”
“Grandpa?”
Grant almost laughed.
“Complicated.”
Fair.
Noah went to Florence.
Then refused Grant’s calls for most of the summer.
Grant did not increase messages.
One text every two weeks.
Hope you're okay.
No demand.
No guilt.
When Noah returned, he agreed to dinner.
Grant apologized.
Noah said:
“I know.”
Then:
“Still mad.”
“Yes.”
Another five weeks passed.
Contact returned slowly.
Nobody called the interruption regression.
A repaired relationship was not one where Noah could never become angry enough to leave.
May you like
It was one where leaving temporarily did not cause Grant to tighten control.
That distinction mattered more than the trip.
