Chapter 1
For several seconds, Bianca remained seated against the bridal chair.
Her breathing had changed.
Not fast.
Shallow.
Controlled.
She was frightened, but she was still trying to look like a woman who had not lost.
Alessandro ignored her.
He crouched in front of Livia.
One side of his daughter’s hair had been cut close to the scalp. The other side still fell to her shoulder.
Her tiny hands were trembling.
“Look at me.”
Livia raised wet eyes toward him.
Alessandro’s voice softened immediately.
“Did she hurt you anywhere else?”
Livia looked toward Bianca.
That single glance made Alessandro’s jaw tighten.
Rosalie knelt beside the child.
“You can tell him.”
Bianca pushed herself upright.
“Oh, please. I cut her hair. I didn't torture her.”
Alessandro slowly turned his head.
The room became quiet again.
Bianca lifted her chin.
There was still arrogance in her eyes.
“You want to cancel our wedding because a spoiled child needed discipline?”
Rosalie inhaled sharply.
Alessandro did not raise his voice.
“Say that again.”
Bianca’s fingers tightened around the edge of the vanity.
She did not.
Livia reached for Alessandro’s sleeve.
“Daddy?”
He looked down.
“Bianca says after today Rosalie goes away.”
Rosalie froze.
Alessandro looked at her.
“What?”
Rosalie’s face went pale.
“I was going to tell you after the ceremony.”
“Tell me what?”
She swallowed.
Her hands folded tightly in her apron.
“Bianca fired me.”
Alessandro stood.
“She doesn't have that authority.”
Rosalie’s eyes filled with something worse than fear.
Embarrassment.
“She showed me the termination papers.”
Bianca’s mouth curved into a faint smile.
Alessandro saw it.
“Where are they?”
Rosalie crossed to the dressing table and removed a folded document from beneath her handbag.
She handed it to him.
Alessandro read the first page.
Rosalie Kent’s employment would end at midnight following the wedding.
The reason listed was inappropriate emotional attachment to Livia and repeated interference with future household authority.
Alessandro’s signature appeared at the bottom.
He stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
Bianca rose slowly.
Her confidence returned one inch at a time.
“You sign more than you remember.”
Alessandro’s eyes moved to her.
She smiled.
“Especially when Matteo puts the papers in front of you.”
The name changed everything.
Matteo Rizzano was not an employee.
He was Alessandro’s cousin, consigliere, and the man who had stood beside him since they were teenagers.
Alessandro folded the document once.
Then twice.
His breathing became almost silent.
Rosalie whispered:
“There’s another page.”
Alessandro opened it.
Below Rosalie’s termination was a second instruction.
Beginning the morning after the wedding, Bianca Moretti would assume full household authority over all decisions involving Livia.
May you like
And beneath it—
was Alessandro’s real signature.
