Chapter 9
Lucy revealed the worst thing casually.
Children often do.
We were eating in the club salon when she asked:
“Mommy staying tonight?”
Alina froze.
I looked at Lucy.
“Yes.”
“Tomorrow too?”
“Yes.”
She nodded.
Then:
“Aunt Ramona said Mommy leaves and I get new mommy.”
The room went still.
I turned toward Ramona.
She looked irritated rather than ashamed.
That told me enough.
“What did you tell my daughter?”
Ramona sighed.
“I was calming her.”
Alina stood.
“Calming her?”
“She was crying.”
“Because you told her I would disappear.”
Ramona rolled her eyes.
“She asked who would take care of her.”
My voice dropped.
“And you said?”
Ramona looked at me.
Nothing.
Lucy answered.
“Aunt Ramona.”
There.
Ramona did not only want Alina removed.
She wanted the domestic place left behind.
Why?
Not because she wanted to mother Lucy.
Because access to my daughter meant access to me.
My household.
My private rooms.
My schedule.
A senior family woman could turn “helping” a motherless child into enormous influence.
I understood.
“You were replacing Alina.”
Ramona laughed.
“Someone would have to.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You wanted to.”
Silence.
Marcus looked at his sister differently.
Maybe he had not known that part.
Interesting.
“You told me this was about Dad,” he said.
Ramona snapped:
“It is.”
“Then why are you planning to move into Lorenzo’s house?”
She looked at him.
Wrong reaction.
Too fast.
Marcus stood.
“What else didn’t you tell me?”
There.
The sibling alliance cracked.
Ramona had used Marcus too.
Told him protecting Enzo’s name protected both of them.
But apparently she had a personal future in mind.
With Alina gone, Ramona could become senior woman of my household.
Manage Lucy.
Manage staff.
Filter access.
Not boss.
Something quieter.
Potentially more enduring.
I looked at Marcus.
“You attacked me for a plan you didn’t fully know.”
His face hardened.
“Yes.”
Good.
No excuse.
Then Ramona said:
“You’re all being sentimental.”
Alina laughed once.
Not kindly.
“My daughter is three.”
“She will forget.”
“No.”
Alina stepped closer.
“You count on children forgetting because that makes cruelty convenient.”
Ramona’s face changed.
That sentence landed.
Lucy reached for Alina.
My wife picked her up.
The entire plan had depended on breaking that bond long enough for adults to rewrite what it meant.
May you like
Ramona had underestimated the one thing she considered cheap.
Love without hierarchy.
