Chapter 122 Protecting Nico
Priya’s letter went out at 4:15 PM.
She had not hedged it. The language was clean and direct: Our client confirmed to the minor child Nico Armitage that the adult dispute did not concern him, that he and his sibling were not parties, that children do not choose what adults do, and that she wished him no harm. We have no intention of involving Nico Armitage in any hearing, deposition, or witness capacity unless his personal safety becomes a documented
concern.
She had also attached a brief account of the encounter’s timing and the context I had described-school gate, unsolicited approach, adult question to Nico that Nico had answered by walking toward me.
Farrow would see the letter within the hour – and recognize, in it, that the planned emotional pressure of Nico’s confusion had not produced what Dario intended.
I told my own attorney-not just Priya, but also Corinne, who handled the Bellamy operational side-that I would not name Nico as a witness.
Corinne received this the way she received most information: precisely.
“Is there any scenario where you’d revisit?” she asked.
“If something happened that made his welfare directly relevant to Noa’s safety,” I said. “Nothing else p>
“I’ll note it p>
“Also note that he asked how Noa was p>
Corinne paused.
“He asked if the baby was okay,” I said. “He told me he has a brother who cries. He said he hoped Noa was well p>
“A 6-year-old kid,” Corinne said.
“Whose father sent him to a gate to generate emotional content p>
“Dario arranged the overlap p>
“Priya believes so based on the timing against the supervised exchange schedule. Nico didn’t know he was being used. He was asking an honest question from a child’s partial picture p>
Corinne was quiet for a moment. “The letter was the right move p>
“I know p>
“I’ll make sure Bennett knows the posture. He tends to want to do something when Nico comes up p>
“Bennett can want things,” I said. “He’s not in charge of this p>
A short pause. “No, of course not p>
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< Chapter 122
“Tell him the posture and tell him it’s not for discussion p>
“Understood p>
Bennett came by that afternoon with Noa’s next size of sleepers-she had outgrown the newborn set faster than the packaging/suggested, which appeared to surprise everyone who had not previously been responsible for a rapidly growing infant.
He set the bag of sleepers down and said, “Corinne briefed me p>
“Good p>
“The letter p>
“Yes p>
He looked at me, then at the bassinet. Noa was in the in-between state she inhabited for approximately 20 minutes before each nap not awake, not asleep, conducting a survey of the ceiling with solemn unfocused attention.
“What did he look like?” Bennett asked. “Nico p>
I thought about how to answer. “Like a child who had been told something adult and imprecise and had gone to ask the original source p>
“He walked over himself p>
“Yes p>
“Not because anyone told him to walk over p>
“He heard someone answer who is she? and decided to ask me directly.” I looked at the bassinet. “He’s very much Dario’s child in the jaw. But the directness – I think that’s him p>
Bennett was quiet for a moment. “He hoped the baby was okay,” he said.
“Yes p>
Neither of us said what we were both thinking, which was that a child who hoped a stranger’s baby was okay was going to grow up to be someone worth knowing, and that this fact existed in painful proximity to the fact of who his father was.
“The sleepers are in the bag,” Bennett said. “3-to-6 month range p>
“Thank you p>
“Do you want me to put them away p>
“I’ll do it p>
He sat in the chair by the wall and watched me cross the room to the bag, not with possession or impatience but with the kind of attention that was simply present. I took the sleepers out and folded them on the table and then looked at them-small, cotton, printed with a pattern of
moons.
Noa would wear these. In a few weeks, she would outgrow these too.
“I’m glad you did it that way,” Bennett said.
“The letter p>
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“The school gate. What you said to him.” He paused. “I don’t know that I would have been able to p>
“He’s 6 p>
“I know.” He looked at his hands. “It still takes something p>
I folded the last sleeper. “He asked if Noa was okay,” I said. “It was easy to be kind to someone who asked that p>
Isolde came over that evening with the kind of tired that meant she had been thinking hard all day and was choosing to spend what was left of company instead of solitude.
We sat in the new apartment, which was starting to feel like an apartment and less like a location, and I told her about the school gate.
Isolde listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she was quiet for a moment.
“He told Nico you didn’t like his family,” she said.
“Some version of that p>
“And Nico walked up to you anyway to check p>
“Yes p>
“Because he’s a 6-year-old who wanted to know if the baby was okay.” She looked at her coffee cup. “Dario’s going to live with that for a
while p>
“Maybe p>
“You know what I mean. When Nico gets older and understands any of this-he’ll remember that he asked and you were kind to him p>
I hadn’t thought about later. Later, for me, had been a series of concrete near-term goals since the donor event – the next hearing, the next safe placement, the next form signed in my own name. But Isolde was right in the way she was always quietly, infuriatingly right.
Nico would grow up. He would ask questions he wasn’t asking now. And somewhere in the record of what had happened, there would be a counsel letter saying that his father’s other woman had been offered a weaponized child and declined.
“Did he actually approach you unprompted?” Isolde asked.
“He asked an adult who I was. The adult didn’t stop him from coming over p>
“Which adult p>
“I assume Farrow arranged the nanny’s position near the gate. The nanny looked harried when she came to collect him. Either she wasn’t told what Nico was supposed to do, or she was and she didn’t expect me to be kind about it p>
Isolde’s mouth moved into something that was not quite a smile but had the bones of one.
“He said he hopes the baby’s okay,” I said.
“Of course he did.” She set her cup down. “He’s going to be a decent person in spite of everything p>
“I hope so p>
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“It’s actually infuriating,” Isolde said. “Dario Armitage made a decent human being while actively trying to destroy another decent human being. The math doesn’t add up p>
“Children aren’t their parents’ resume p>
“I know. It’s still infuriating.” She stood and carried her cup to the kitchen. “I’m glad you protected him. I want you to know that p>
“I know you know p>
“I wanted to say it anyway.” She rinsed the cup. “What does Celine do with the letter p>
“I don’t know p>
“She reads it and understands that you could have used Nico and didn’t p>
“And then she has to decide what that means about the story she’s been telling herself p>
We didn’t say anything for a moment. Noa was asleep in the next room. The foam mat was in the corner by the window. The building across the street was dark and empty and owned by a shell company that now had a sanctions warning attached to its court record.
“She’ll request a private conversation,” Isolde said.
“Maybe p>
“She will.” She came back to the doorway. “Not because she’s changed. Because she wants to know what you want p>
“And when she does p>
Isolde looked at me. “Tell her,” she said.
End of chapter-
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Tai Jun
Tai Jun is a dreamer and storyteller who believes the sky is never the limit. He spends most of his time with his friend Lian, chasing new horizons and crafting tales that soar beyond boundaries.