Chapter 12
Bianca eventually gave a statement through her attorney.
She admitted ordering the room packed.
Admitted telling staff that Domenico approved changes he had never approved.
Admitted contacting the school without his knowledge.
She denied intending to emotionally abuse Emma.
Her explanation was revealing.
She said she believed Domenico would never create space for a wife unless someone forced the transition.
“He already had a family before me,” she said during a deposition.
“I was being asked to enter it without being given a real place.”
Ethan later asked Domenico what he thought.
He considered the question.
“She was right about one thing.”
Ethan looked surprised.
“I did already have a family.”
Emma.
Marriage was supposed to add someone.
Bianca had treated it as a competition for an existing position.
Her fear of always coming second was understandable.
Her decision to solve that fear by making a three-year-old feel disposable was not.
Bianca also described Helena as the person who first told her:
“If you wait for Domenico to stop centering Emma, you’ll wait forever.”
That sentence hurt Helena more than anything Bianca said about herself.
Because Helena did not deny it.
The Bellandi family council wanted the entire dispute buried once Bianca’s criminal case appeared likely to resolve through a plea.
Domenico refused.
Not because he wanted publicity.
Because he wanted the household consequences written down.
New policies were created.
Only Domenico or a designated legal guardian could authorize changes involving Emma’s school, medical care, bedroom, or primary schedule.
Staff received written authority to refuse instructions that contradicted those policies regardless of who issued them.
Childcare staff reported to a professional household manager, not to family elders.
Some capos mocked the bureaucracy.
Domenico did not care.
For generations, Bellandis had trusted hierarchy.
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Hierarchy had nearly made a three-year-old homeless inside her own home.
Paperwork suddenly seemed less ridiculous.
