Chapter 1
The wedding was canceled before anyone reached the chapel.
Alessandro did not make an announcement.
He did not need to.
Within fifteen minutes, the bridal suite had emptied, security had begun escorting guests away from the Rizzano estate, and the musicians outside had stopped playing one by one as word moved through the property.
Bianca stood near the vanity with one hand wrapped around the engagement ring Alessandro had pressed back into her possession.
“You cannot humiliate me like this.”
Alessandro barely looked at her.
He was kneeling in front of Livia.
Rosalie had wrapped a clean towel loosely around the little girl’s shoulders so the clipped hair would not scratch her neck.
One side of Livia’s carefully styled hair was gone.
Not completely shaved, but close enough that pale scalp showed through.
Her face was wet with tears.
Alessandro touched her cheek.
“Does anything hurt?”
Livia sniffled.
“My hair.”
“I know.”
“Put it back.”
His throat tightened.
“I can’t put that part back.”
Her face crumpled again.
Rosalie crouched beside her.
“It’ll grow, sweetheart.”
Bianca exhaled sharply.
“For God’s sake, it’s hair.”
Alessandro stood.
The room changed with him.
Bianca took a step backward.
He did not touch her.
“You’re leaving.”
“This is my wedding day.”
“No.”
His voice remained quiet.
“It was.”
Bianca glanced toward the doorway where two bodyguards were waiting.
“You’re choosing a three-year-old tantrum over the woman you were supposed to marry.”
Alessandro looked at Livia.
“She didn’t throw the tantrum.”
Bianca’s expression hardened.
“She ruined half the morning. She kept touching everything. She pulled at my veil. She wouldn’t stand where the photographer put her.”
“She’s three.”
“You keep saying that like it excuses everything.”
“No.”
Alessandro looked back at her.
“I keep saying it because you apparently forgot.”
Bianca demanded her luggage.
Alessandro told staff to have it delivered to the hotel where her family was staying.
She threatened lawyers.
Press.
Public embarrassment.
Money.
Everything except an apology to Livia.
That mattered.
When Bianca finally left the room, Rosalie remained with the child.
Alessandro picked up the clippers from the vanity.
One blade had cracked when he threw them down.
He stared at them.
Then at Rosalie.
“Was this the first time?”
Rosalie did not answer immediately.
That delay frightened him more than a yes would have.
“What else happened?”
Rosalie looked toward Livia.
“Not in front of her.”
Alessandro nodded.
He carried his daughter upstairs himself.
An hour later, after Livia finally fell asleep, Rosalie came to his study.
May you like
She closed the door.
And told him Bianca had been testing how much control she could take over Livia for almost three months.
