My grandfather’s whole life was a tutorial in how.

And I chose not to, and I want to explain why, because it is the actual point of everything that happened to me.

My grandfather built an empire by deciding, again and again, that the profitable thing and the right thing were the same thing whenever he needed them to be.

That decision was the rot.

It was the original sin that Silvia’s father died over and that eventually reached forward thirty years to put sedatives in my espresso.

I was not going to inherit that.