Chapter 10 - SOPHIE WAS NEVER “COMING FIRST”
Sophie told the rest slowly.
Victoria had been coaching her for months.
Not to hate Noah.
To test Raffaele.
At restaurants, Sophie was told to take Noah’s preferred seat.
At family events, she was told to ask for time alone with Raffaele.
If Noah cried, Sophie was supposed to remember it.
If he protested, Victoria called him possessive.
If Raffaele corrected Victoria, she changed tactics.
Sophie had hated all of it.
The engagement party was supposed to be the final test.
Victoria told her daughter:
“If he lets Noah ruin this day, I’ll know he’ll never put us first.”
But the major twist was what came after.
Sophie had accidentally seen the school-transfer emails on Victoria’s tablet.
When she asked why she was going to live with Daniel after the wedding, Victoria told her:
“You’re helping me get us into the family. Once I’m married, you’ll be happier with Dad anyway.”
Sophie asked why she had to compete with Noah if she was leaving.
Victoria became angry.
“She said children make men weak.”
The evaluator stopped writing for a moment.
Sophie continued.
Victoria intended Sophie to live primarily with Daniel.
She intended Noah and Margaret to spend most of their time at the Marconi lake property under the language of “security, routine, and age-appropriate care.”
The main estate would become Victoria’s household.
Adult dinners.
Travel.
Social events.
Raffaele.
No children interrupting.
The apparent favoritism had been fake.
Victoria was not fighting to make Sophie the favored child.
She was using Sophie to prove she could control Raffaele’s relationship with Noah before marrying him.
And once the marriage secured her position, Sophie was expendable too.
Three earlier clues had pointed directly at it.
Sophie returning Noah’s chair instead of enjoying it.
Victoria arranging Sophie’s full-time school transfer to Daniel.
The proposal relocating Noah and Margaret to the lake house.
Even Sophie’s strange question—Do I still have to be useful?—finally made sense.
Victoria had turned her daughter into a tool and Noah into a test.
Her motive was not maternal devotion.
It was control.
Raffaele read the evaluator’s preliminary summary alone.
He had been prepared to discover that Victoria disliked his son.
He had not been prepared to discover that she had used her own daughter the same way.
For the first time since the garden party, his anger disappeared completely.
May you like
What replaced it was colder.
Clarity.
