Chapter 4
Alessandro did not strike Matteo.
That unsettled Matteo more than anger would have.
He simply looked at him.
“How long?”
Matteo’s breathing slowed.
“Three weeks.”
“You planned to send my daughter away for three weeks without letting me speak to her?”
“No.”
Matteo’s voice tightened.
“That wasn't how it was presented to me.”
“How was it presented?”
“That Livia needed help adjusting before Bianca moved fully into the house.”
Alessandro turned toward Bianca.
“You told him this was therapy.”
“It is.”
“For what?”
Bianca’s fingers closed around her engagement-ring finger.
The ring was no longer there.
Her confidence wavered.
“Separation anxiety.”
Rosalie laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
“From whom?”
Bianca looked at her.
Rosalie stepped forward.
“She only panics when Bianca takes her away from people she trusts.”
“Stay out of this.”
“No.”
Rosalie’s voice trembled, but she did not move back.
“For months I stayed out of it because every time I spoke, you told Mr. Rizzano I was jealous.”
Bianca’s eyes hardened.
“You are the maid.”
Rosalie looked at Alessandro.
“And that made it easy not to believe me.”
He felt the sentence land.
Because it was true.
Rosalie had complained before.
Bianca changing Livia’s bedtime.
Bianca throwing away drawings.
Bianca refusing to let the child sleep with her late mother’s blanket.
Each time Alessandro had called it adjustment.
Each time Matteo had advised him not to let staff undermine his future wife.
Now Rosalie removed her phone.
“I started taking pictures.”
Bianca went still.
Rosalie opened a folder.
Livia’s favorite toys inside trash bags.
A nursery door locked from the outside.
A meal placed untouched outside the room.
A child-sized chair facing a wall.
Alessandro’s hand tightened around the phone.
“When?”
“Over the last six weeks.”
“Why didn't you show me?”
Rosalie’s breathing caught.
“I tried.”
Matteo looked away.
Alessandro saw it.
“What?”
Rosalie stared at Matteo.
“I sent them to his office.”
The room went silent.
Alessandro slowly turned.
Matteo did not deny it.
His voice came low.
“I saw the photos.”
Alessandro’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“I thought Bianca was being too strict.”
“Too strict?”
“I told her to stop.”
Bianca scoffed.
“No, you told me to be smarter about it.”
Matteo’s face snapped toward her.
Her eyes widened.
Too late.
Alessandro heard every word.
May you like
And suddenly the betrayal was no longer standing in a wedding gown.
It was wearing his family signet ring too.
