Chapter 10
Francesca hated that I spoke to Mason without her.
“You had no right.”
I almost laughed.
“You tied my son to a chair.”
“He is my grandson.”
“Exactly.”
She did not hear the contradiction.
Or refused to.
Bianca stood beside her mother again, but something had changed. She no longer looked certain that they wanted the same thing.
I noticed.
“Did you know she told Mason he had to make Caleb quit?”
Bianca looked at Francesca.
“No.”
My mother sighed.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Bianca’s face hardened.
“I asked you to teach him confidence.”
“I did.”
“You told him to hurt Caleb.”
“I told him not to lose.”
Silence.
There.
Even Bianca heard it now.
My mother continued.
“Mason needs an edge. Alessandra’s child has the name, the bloodline, the position. Your son has to earn what will simply fall into Caleb’s lap.”
Bianca stared at her.
I saw thirty-six years rearrange behind her eyes.
“You told me the same thing.”
Francesca frowned.
“What?”
“When Alessandra was chosen.”
My mother said nothing.
Bianca laughed once.
“You told me I had to become impossible to ignore.”
“I was helping you.”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“You made me hate my sister.”
Silence.
That landed in me too.
I looked at Bianca.
For years, I had interpreted her resentment as ambition.
Maybe ambition was only the shape it took.
Francesca snapped:
“Don’t start this.”
Bianca turned.
“You did the same thing to Mason.”
My mother’s face changed.
Finally.
Not guilt.
Fear of losing her own daughter’s loyalty.
Bianca stepped away from her.
That was the first real fracture.
May you like
Not between me and Bianca.
Between Bianca and the person who taught her competition was love.
