Chapter 2 - THE RULES RAFFAELE NEVER APPROVED
Margaret kept notes.
Not because she suspected a conspiracy.
Because running a large estate required schedules.
Meal changes.
Drivers.
Child-care handoffs.
Guests.
Staff assignments.
Once Raffaele asked for specifics, Margaret brought him six weeks of household logs.
Victoria had made dozens of small changes.
Noah’s breakfast had been moved from the family kitchen to the staff breakfast room on mornings Victoria stayed over.
His place at Sunday lunch had twice been moved from beside Raffaele to the far end with the younger children.
A family photographer had been told to take several engagement portraits without Noah because Victoria said he was “overstimulated.”
Margaret had also received a strange question three weeks earlier.
Victoria asked whether Margaret would be willing to live at the Marconi lake property after the wedding.
“With Noah?” Raffaele asked.
“That’s what I assumed.”
“Why?”
“She said he might do better somewhere quieter.”
Raffaele stared at her.
“I never discussed moving my son.”
“I know that now.”
There was the first clue.
Victoria had been thinking about Noah living somewhere other than the main estate.
Raffaele called her.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“What?”
“Did you ask Margaret to move to the lake house with Noah?”
Silence.
Then Victoria sighed.
“I asked a hypothetical question.”
“Why?”
“Because this house is chaos.”
“He lives here.”
“And Sophie would live here too.”
Raffaele waited.
Victoria continued.
“You keep saying you want a blended family, but you refuse to admit Noah needs structure.”
“Structure isn’t sending him away.”
“I never said away.”
“You asked my housekeeper to relocate with him.”
“To another property you own.”
Raffaele’s voice went cold.
“Without discussing it with me.”
Victoria changed direction.
“This is exactly why I tried to handle things quietly. You become irrational whenever anyone mentions Noah.”
He ended the call.
That afternoon, another adult entered the problem.
Daniel Hale.
Sophie’s father.
He lived outside Milwaukee and had shared legal custody, although Sophie spent the school week primarily with Victoria.
Daniel called Raffaele after Victoria told him the engagement had ended.
He sounded embarrassed.
“I’m coming to get Sophie tonight.”
“She’s with Victoria.”
“I know.”
A pause.
“She was supposed to come stay with me after the wedding anyway.”
Raffaele went still.
“For how long?”
Daniel sounded confused by the question.
“Victoria said starting right after the honeymoon. Full time, at least through the school year.”
Raffaele looked across the room at Margaret.
May you like
Victoria had been telling him Sophie would become part of his household.
She had been telling Sophie’s father the exact opposite.
