Chapter 20 - I MAKE THE BOYS INTO HEADLINES
My second major mistake was not violence.
It was pride.
A reporter cornered me outside a shareholder meeting.
Question:
“Are the twins your children?”
I should have said:
“Family matter.”
Instead:
“They are my sons.”
True.
Then:
“Will they inherit the Ferretti group?”
I was angry at the framing.
I answered:
“They’ll inherit whatever I decide is theirs.”
Terrible.
The headline next morning:
MAFIA HEIRS RECLAIMED: FERRETTI TWINS SET FOR EMPIRE.
Maeve called at 6:12 a.m.
“What did you do?”
“I said they’re my sons.”
“You made them a succession story.”
“I did not.”
“Read the article.”
I did.
Damn.
At preschool, another parent asked Silas if he was “a mafia prince.”
He cried.
Maeve was furious.
Correctly.
I issued a statement through counsel:
Silas and Jonah Wynn are minor children. Their privacy, schooling, and family relationships are not corporate succession matters. I should not have answered questions that encouraged that framing.
No lawsuit threat.
No intimidation.
Then I stopped talking about them publicly.
May you like
“Hidden heirs” had been my emotional sentence.
I would not turn it into their identity.
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