Chapter 8
Bianca blamed Harrison.
Predictable.
“My father pushed this.”
I sat across from her the next morning.
“No.”
She frowned.
“He did.”
“I believe you.”
Then:
“He did not throw Toby’s shoes into the rain.”
Silence.
“He did not wave him away.”
Her jaw tightened.
“He did not pull a towel from his shoulders.”
She looked down.
Good.
“Why do you hate him?”
“I don’t.”
“Then explain your behavior without that word.”
She struggled.
Finally:
“He represents a life Graham refuses to leave.”
Better.
Claire.
Grief.
A first marriage.
A child who would always connect Graham to a woman Bianca could never replace.
“I walk into this house and she’s everywhere.”
“No.”
I looked around.
“Claire is almost nowhere because you removed her.”
Bianca flinched.
Exactly.
The more she erased, the more haunted she felt.
Because the problem was never photographs.
It was history.
“You wanted a husband without a past.”
“I wanted one who chose me.”
There.
Control disguised as reassurance.
“And sending Toby away proved that?”
She started crying.
“Yes.”
Honest.
Ugly.
Useful.
Harrison had taught her love meant priority.
Priority meant exclusion.
If Graham loved Bianca enough, he would prove it by reducing every previous bond.
First Claire’s photographs.
Then Claire’s ring.
Then Toby.
What would come next?
Me.
Probably.
Anyone who complicated Wells influence.
“Your father promised Graham support.”
“Yes.”
“What did he promise you?”
She hesitated.
I waited.
“A place beside him.”
“Doing what?”
Her face changed.
She had not asked clearly.
Harrison promised that when Graham became head, Bianca would become the woman who “shaped the house.”
Beautiful phrase.
Meaning hostess.
Gatekeeper.
Family influence.
Not command.
I almost felt sorry for her.
“You were helping your father crown Graham so your father could control both of you.”
She looked at me sharply.
“No.”
“Call Harrison.”
She did.
Speaker on.
One question:
“If Graham refuses to send Toby away, do you still support him?”
Harrison answered immediately.
“No.”
Bianca’s face collapsed.
Then she understood.
May you like
Her father’s loyalty had never been to her marriage.
It was to obedience.
