Chapter 4
The fourth video showed no dog bowl.
That made it worse.
Lucy sat at the breakfast table while Bianca placed a full plate in front of her.
My daughter smiled.
Then Bianca moved it six inches away.
“If you call me Mommy, you can eat.”
Lucy froze.
The room around me went silent.
On the recording, Lucy shook her head.
“My mommy is Sofia.”
Bianca’s smile changed.
“That woman is gone.”
My hands became cold.
Lucy looked at me.
I stopped the video.
She remembered this one.
I could see it.
“Did she say that a lot?”
Lucy whispered, “She said dead mommies don’t count.”
Emma covered her mouth.
Marcus closed his eyes.
I did neither.
I needed to see him.
“How many times?”
He whispered, “I don’t know.”
“Wrong.”
His face tightened.
“I wasn’t always there.”
“But enough.”
“Yes.”
Bianca had not been humiliating Lucy randomly.
She was trying to replace Sofia.
Not emotionally.
By force.
Call me Mommy.
Eat.
Refuse.
Lose food.
Behave like an animal.
Eat like one.
Everything reduced to conditions.
I looked toward the hallway where Bianca waited under guard.
For the first time, I understood the scale.
This was not cruelty produced by irritation.
It was a campaign.
Against a three-year-old’s memory.
Against a dead woman.
Against the one relationship Bianca could never control.
Emma played another clip.
Bianca again.
“If you love Daddy, you’ll make his life easier.”
Lucy whispered, “How?”
“By letting him have a real family again.”
My throat tightened.
Marcus was visible behind her.
Not laughing this time.
Watching.
Uncomfortable.
Still doing nothing.
I looked at him.
“You heard that.”
“Yes.”
“You knew what she was doing.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stop it?”
He looked at me.
“Because Bianca said if Lucy accepted her, you’d finally marry.”
The room went still.
There it was.
The wedding.
Not love.
May you like
Timeline.
Bianca had decided my daughter was the obstacle between engagement and permanent access to the Romano family.
