Chapter 11
Bianca learned the full truth at the same time Alessandro did.
She stared at Matteo.
“You chose me?”
Matteo looked exhausted.
“You already knew the family.”
“You pushed Alessandro toward me.”
“Yes.”
Bianca laughed once.
Her eyes filled.
“So even that wasn't real.”
Alessandro looked at her.
She turned toward him.
“I loved you.”
“I believe you.”
That answer hurt her more than disbelief.
Matteo sat down.
After Sofia’s death, he feared Alessandro would collapse under grief and business pressure.
Bianca represented three things at once.
Moretti capital.
Social stability.
A woman already familiar with the family.
Matteo encouraged every meeting.
Every dinner.
Every shared charity event.
He never ordered Alessandro to fall in love.
He arranged the conditions.
Bianca realized it.
Then embraced them.
The marriage benefited her family.
And the closer she came to becoming Alessandro’s wife, the more threatened she felt by everything Sofia had left behind.
Livia.
Rosalie.
The bedroom.
The jewelry.
Even the child’s hair.
Alessandro looked at Bianca.
“Why her hair?”
Bianca’s breathing slowed.
For several seconds she said nothing.
Then:
“Because she looked like Sofia.”
Rosalie covered her mouth.
Bianca’s eyes remained on Alessandro.
“Every person at that wedding was going to see your dead wife walking beside me in a flower-girl dress.”
Her voice broke.
“I wanted one day where she wasn't in the room.”
Alessandro looked at his daughter through the nursery glass.
“She wasn't.”
Bianca flinched.
“You brought her there yourself.”
No one spoke.
The punishment began quietly.
Bianca’s wedding access was revoked.
Her belongings were packed under supervision.
The Moretti refinancing deal was suspended pending review.
Matteo was removed from operational authority.
Not publicly yet.
That would come after independent financial review.
Matteo looked at Alessandro.
“You suspend that deal, the hotels could still fail.”
“I know.”
“You're willing to lose them?”
Alessandro’s eyes stayed on him.
“For the first time, I'm willing to find out what survives without you deciding for me.”
Matteo’s face changed.
Power had finally left his hands.
Then the finance director called.
The Moretti money was not the only thing keeping the hotels alive.
Matteo had pledged something else as collateral.
May you like
Something Alessandro had never authorized.
The Rizzano family residence.
