Chapter 3
Bianca agreed to an attorney-supervised interview.
Her face still carried bruising from the collapse into the ceremony screens.
She looked furious.
Not frightened.
Not yet.
Her lawyer instructed her to answer only questions directly related to the wedding incident.
Claire began with Emma’s dress.
“Why did you call it cheap?”
Bianca laughed bitterly.
“Ask Sophia.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Because she deliberately ordered a knockoff.”
Raffaele said nothing.
Claire placed the Bellweather invoice on the table.
Bianca looked down.
Her expression faltered.
“That’s not Emma’s.”
“It is.”
“No.”
“Matching order number. Measurements. Delivery address.”
Bianca looked toward Gregory’s attorney across the room.
Gregory himself was not present.
“Gregory told me Sophia canceled the original.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Did you speak to Bellweather?”
“No.”
“Did you speak to Sophia?”
“She lies.”
“About what?”
Bianca’s answer came immediately.
“Everything she thinks she can control.”
Claire asked for examples.
Bianca began listing them.
Sophia supposedly called Bianca socially embarrassing.
Sophia supposedly told Gregory that Bianca looked like “a nightclub bride.”
Sophia supposedly complained that Emma should not stand beside her in photographs because it made the bridal party look uneven.
Sophia supposedly threatened to cancel the cake upgrade if Bianca did not reduce her guest list.
Sophia supposedly said the Hale family was lucky the Carbones were allowing them to use the estate.
Every statement came through Gregory.
Not one came directly from Sophia.
Claire asked:
“You physically shoved a pregnant woman because her daughter’s dress offended you?”
Bianca’s face tightened.
“She came at me.”
“She pulled Emma behind her.”
“She was screaming.”
“After you cut a three-year-old’s clothing with scissors.”
Bianca looked away.
There was no version that made that reasonable.
Her lawyer knew it.
Bianca knew it too.
Then Claire asked something else.
“What did Gregory tell you would happen after the wedding?”
Bianca frowned.
“With what?”
“The expenses Sophia supposedly rejected.”
“Gregory said once we were married, Raffaele would stop letting Sophia interfere.”
Raffaele’s eyes narrowed.
“Why would marriage change my company approvals?”
Bianca looked at him.
“I don’t know. Gregory said I would be family.”
That sentence bothered Raffaele.
Marriage did not give Bianca authority over Carbone companies.
It did not give Gregory more authority either.
Yet Gregory had apparently spent months telling his fiancée that the wedding would fix financial restrictions.
Claire switched topics.
“Did Gregory ever ask you to confront Sophia publicly?”
“No.”
“Encourage you?”
Bianca hesitated.
“That’s not the same thing.”
“What did he say?”
Another pause.
“He said Sophia only behaved the way she did because nobody embarrassed her back.”
Raffaele leaned back.
May you like
The violence still belonged to Bianca.
But someone had been feeding it.
