Chapter 9
Bianca laughed when she heard I had abandoned the punishment.
“I knew you wouldn’t do it.”
I looked at her.
“Do what?”
“Make me eat from the bowl.”
She smiled.
“You’re too soft.”
There it was.
She thought mercy proved her point.
I almost admired the consistency.
“No.”
I sat opposite her.
“I realized humiliating you would only prove you taught me correctly.”
Her smile disappeared.
“I learned the difference.”
She stared.
“Between what?”
“Consequence and degradation.”
Silence.
She hated that.
I continued.
“You lose household authority.”
Her face changed.
“No control over staff. No access to Sophie without me present. No family discipline. No council attendance.”
She stood.
“You cannot remove me from this house.”
“I didn’t.”
“You said—”
“I said authority.”
Pause.
“You still have a room.”
That hurt more.
Because Bianca had always confused shelter with command.
She needed to be necessary.
Not merely loved.
“What about Matteo?”
“He answers for himself.”
Her mouth tightened.
“You’ll destroy him.”
“No.”
I looked toward the door.
“He gets to decide whether he wants to keep being the man you trained him to be.”
That frightened her.
Control depends on defining people before they define themselves.
She sat again.
“You think Sophie will respect you now?”
I looked at her.
“She is three.”
“Exactly. You’re teaching her tears work.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“I’m teaching her telling me the truth works.”
Bianca’s eyes hardened.
“She will grow weak.”
“Maybe.”
That surprised her.
I continued.
“She may cry. She may ask for help. She may fail. She may need people.”
I looked toward the hallway where Sophie’s laughter came faintly from upstairs.
“But she will never confuse fear with respect because I needed her easier to control.”
Bianca stared at me.
Then said something quieter.
“You sound like your father.”
That stopped me.
My father.
Dead seven years.
A man Bianca had hated by the end.
“Why?”
She looked away.
“He said the same thing.”
Interesting.
“What did you do to him?”
May you like
Her face changed.
And suddenly this was no longer only about Sophie.
