Chapter 2
It had started with things small enough to dismiss.
Bianca changed Livia’s breakfast time because she wanted quieter mornings.
She told staff not to allow the child into Alessandro’s office when Bianca was there.
She removed several photographs of Livia’s late mother from the downstairs rooms because she said they made the house feel “frozen in grief.”
Rosalie had put them back.
Bianca removed them again.
“She told me you approved it,” Rosalie said.
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Alessandro sat behind his desk.
“How many times did she use my name to give you instructions?”
“At least a dozen.”
He looked at her.
“And nobody checked with me?”
Rosalie did not flinch.
“You run this house like your business.”
That was not an answer he expected.
She continued.
“When someone says the order came from you, people obey.”
Alessandro leaned back.
For most of his life, unquestioned obedience had been useful.
Tonight it sounded different.
“What did she change?”
Rosalie listed them.
Livia was no longer allowed to eat breakfast in Alessandro’s private dining room on mornings Bianca stayed over.
Her toys had been removed from the formal living room.
The child had been told not to enter the bridal suite.
A week earlier, Bianca ordered Rosalie to begin packing some of Livia’s seasonal clothes for the Rizzano lake house.
Alessandro looked up.
“What?”
“She said you wanted more of Livia’s things kept there.”
“I never said that.”
Rosalie nodded.
“I didn’t move anything.”
That was the first detail Alessandro could not explain as ordinary conflict between a future stepmother and a young child.
The lake house was ninety minutes away.
Livia visited in summer.
She did not live there.
“Why would Bianca want her clothes there?”
“She never told me.”
Alessandro called his estate security director, Michael Trent.
He wanted every camera from the bridal wing and garden preserved.
Michael promised nothing would be deleted.
Then he hesitated.
“What?”
“One of the garden cameras was repositioned this morning.”
Alessandro went still.
“By whom?”
“The request came through your cousin Dominic’s office.”
Dominic Rizzano was forty-six, Alessandro’s cousin and the senior executive overseeing the family’s legitimate logistics companies.
“Why?”
“Wedding coverage. That’s what the work order says.”
“Which camera?”
“The one facing the bridal terrace.”
Alessandro looked toward Rosalie.
The bridal terrace was exactly where Bianca had cut Livia’s hair.
The first clue had arrived.
Small.
Technical.
May you like
Possibly meaningless.
Alessandro refused to decide what it meant before he had more.
