Chapter 12
Elise moved into a permanent townhouse three months later.
Not Augusto’s estate.
Not Millicent’s house.
Her own.
The decision hurt Augusto more than he admitted.
He had imagined his daughter and granddaughter living safely beneath his roof.
He had already ordered the nursery repainted before Elise told him to stop.
She found out anyway.
“Dad.”
“I canceled it.”
“You ordered it without asking.”
“I was trying to help.”
“I know.”
That was the problem.
Augusto went quiet.
Elise sat across from him.
“Travis kept saying he was helping.”
Augusto’s face changed.
“I’m not Travis.”
“No.”
She held his gaze.
“But I need you to understand why I can’t leave one controlling house and move into another one just because the second person loves me.”
He took the sentence without defending himself.
That was new.
“What do you need?”
“A father.”
“I am your father.”
“Then stop acting like my security department.”
Augusto almost argued that a security department was useful.
He wisely chose not to.
They created boundaries.
His guards stayed outside unless invited.
He did not receive her schedule.
He did not call her attorney without permission.
He did not ask doctors for information they could not legally give him.
He did not choose Anna’s nanny.
Some days he hated every boundary.
He followed them anyway.
Meanwhile, Millicent gave investigators a fuller statement.
Her version was self-serving but important.
She admitted Travis had repeatedly described Elise as manipulative.
He told her Elise used pregnancy to get Augusto’s attention.
He told her the marriage would fail unless they “broke the habit” before the baby arrived.
Millicent believed him partly because the ideas matched her own worldview.
A wife should prioritize her husband.
A daughter should not run to her father.
A pregnant woman should not control an entire household through fear.
Millicent’s beliefs made her willing.
May you like
Travis’s planning made her useful.
Neither could place responsibility entirely on the other.
