Chapter 10
Gregory’s real plan was not to destroy Sophia.
It was to make her objections look personal.
That was the major twist.
Hale Event Management was failing.
Gregory needed the Carbone hospitality partnership to survive.
Sophia controlled enough of the financial review that her approval mattered.
She had already begun questioning wedding invoices connected to Hale vendors.
If she examined Gregory’s company closely before the partnership was approved, the deal would die.
So Gregory created a feud.
He told Bianca that Sophia considered her cheap, embarrassing, socially inferior, and unworthy of the wedding she wanted.
He told Sophia that Bianca demanded every extravagant invoice and refused direct communication.
He altered messages.
Removed context.
Redirected bills.
Turned ordinary financial controls into evidence of personal hostility.
The first clue had been Emma’s Bellweather dress.
Gregory knew it was expensive because he had paid the original invoice.
Yet he told Bianca Sophia replaced it with something cheap.
The second clue was the communication wall.
Every dispute between Sophia and Bianca flowed through Gregory because direct conversation would have destroyed the lies.
The third clue was the lender memo written before the wedding.
Gregory had already planned to describe Sophia’s accounting objections as personal family conflict.
Then came the draft partnership.
Once Gregory married Bianca, he expected to pressure Raffaele into approving the deal rather than embarrass his new in-laws.
But Sophia remained the problem.
So Gregory needed Bianca visibly angry at her.
Not necessarily violent.
Angry.
Publicly.
If Sophia reacted, Gregory could point to the wedding feud and tell lenders, Raffaele, and other executives that her objections were emotional retaliation.
That was why he arranged the “reconciliation photos.”
He put Bianca, Sophia, and Emma together shortly before meeting lenders.
Then he gave Bianca one final lie.
A message recovered from her phone:
Sophia told the planner Emma’s dress looks cheap because Bianca’s photos aren’t worth dressing up for anyway.
Sophia never said it.
Gregory wrote it forty-seven minutes before the confrontation.
Bianca saw Emma.
Saw the Bellweather dress Gregory had told her was a replacement.
And snapped.
Cutting a child’s clothing was Bianca’s decision.
Shoving a pregnant woman was Bianca’s decision.
Raising the scissors again was Bianca’s decision.
Gregory did not control her hands.
But he had deliberately brought a resentful bride to the edge because he believed the resulting scene would help save his company.
He miscalculated one thing.
Raffaele arrived before Sophia could be framed as the aggressor.
And Gregory made the miscalculation worse when he immediately said:
“Control your family or leave my wedding.”
That sentence had seemed arrogant at the time.
Now its purpose was obvious.
He was already establishing who the problem was supposed to be.
The Carbone family.
Not the bride holding scissors.
Not the groom whose company was failing.
Not the fake financial narrative.
Sophia.
Raffaele sat across from Gregory during the final attorney-supervised confrontation.
“You used my pregnant daughter as a business excuse.”
Gregory looked exhausted.
“I needed time.”
“You needed money.”
“I built that company for fourteen years.”
“And?”
“You were going to let Sophia bury it.”
Raffaele’s expression hardened.
“She asked you for corrected invoices.”
“You don’t understand what happens when lenders think you’re weak.”
Raffaele almost laughed.
“I understand exactly.”
Gregory leaned forward.
“If the partnership had gone through, I could have fixed everything.”
There it was again.
The same disease wearing a different suit.
Do the wrong thing now.
Fix it later.
Raffaele shook his head.
“You didn’t need my daughter to approve your company.”
May you like
Gregory stared at him.
“You needed her credibility to fail before yours did.”
