Chapter 7
Bianca finally remembered the argument that started everything.
It happened when she was twenty-six weeks pregnant.
Not dramatic.
No broken furniture.
No shouting.
Victor had proposed that after the baby arrived they spend several months at Marcella’s house.
Bianca said no.
Victor called it temporary.
Bianca still said no.
“She wants to help.”
“She wants to run everything.”
“She’s my mother.”
“And Lorenzo is my father. We’re not moving in with him either.”
Victor became quiet at that.
Bianca remembered the exact expression now.
Resentment.
Not toward Marcella.
Toward Lorenzo.
Victor said:
“This baby is going to grow up believing the Vitale name is the only name that matters.”
Bianca answered:
“The baby is a Hale too.”
“That isn’t how your family treats me.”
The conversation ended badly.
Two days later, Victor created the first entry in POSTPARTUM CONCERNS — B.V.
Rachel placed the dates beside each other.
“That matters.”
Bianca stared at them.
“What if this whole thing is about my father?”
“Maybe partly.”
That same week, investigators interviewed a household driver named Paul Jennings.
Paul remembered Victor asking an unusual question.
“If Bianca wanted to leave with the baby after an argument, who would you drive?”
Paul laughed at the time.
He said Bianca, obviously.
Victor did not laugh.
He asked whether Lorenzo had given standing instructions about Bianca’s transportation.
Paul said no.
Two days later, Marcella asked the same question.
That became another piece.
Not enough alone.
Together, a pattern.
Victor appeared worried not only that Bianca would have a baby.
He feared that after birth, Bianca would be able to leave with the baby and return to the Vitale family whenever she wished.
Rachel asked Bianca something difficult.
“Had you threatened divorce?”
“No.”
“Separation?”
Bianca hesitated.
“Once.”
“When?”
“The same argument.”
“What did you say?”
“That if he and Marcella kept trying to run my pregnancy, I’d stay somewhere else after delivery.”
“With the baby?”
“I didn’t say.”
“Did Victor assume?”
“Probably.”
There was motive.
Not yet the entire scheme.
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Victor feared losing control of his marriage after the baby arrived.
Instead of repairing the marriage, he had started documenting the woman he feared might leave.
