Chapter 6: What Alessandra Finally Said
Alessandra was awake when Giorgio knocked.
She was sitting up in bed with Theo in her arms, looking out the window at the morning.
She looked like someone who had slept for the first time in a very long time and wasn't sure yet if she was allowed to feel relieved.
Giorgio sat in the chair beside the bed.
He didn't speak immediately.
"Colin came this morning," he said finally.
"With a lawyer."
She looked at him.
"I know.
I heard the door."
"He's claiming parental rights."
"He has them." Her voice was calm.
"He's Theo's father.
I'm not going to pretend otherwise."
"I know." Giorgio leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
"Alessandra.
I need to ask you something and I need you to answer me honestly."
She waited.
"Why didn't you call me?"
The question sat between them.
"I tried," she said.
"In the beginning.
When Marcia first moved in.
I called you twice." She looked down at Theo.
"You were in Milan.
Then you were in Frankfurt.
Your assistant said you were in meetings.
I didn't leave a message."
Giorgio was quiet.
"I told myself it wasn't serious enough yet.
That I was being sensitive.
That Marcia was difficult but not—" She stopped.
"And then it became normal.
That's the thing no one tells you.
It becomes the new normal and you stop being able to see it clearly."
"The night he grabbed your arm," Giorgio said.
"Coming back from the hospital."
She nodded.
Once.
"I told myself it was the stress.
That he was scared about the baby.
That it wouldn't happen again." She looked at her father.
"It didn't happen again.
Not like that.
But the other things didn't stop.
The lists.
The errands.
Being told I was lazy, dramatic, ungrateful." She exhaled slowly.
"After a while you start to believe it."
Giorgio's hand moved to hers.
He didn't say anything.
He just held it.
"I should have come sooner," he said.
"You didn't know."
"I should have known."
She shook her head.
"Papa.
I hid it.
I'm good at hiding things.
You taught me to be strong and I used it to hide." A small, tired sound that was almost a laugh.
"That's not your fault."
Theo made a small noise.
She adjusted him gently.
"What happens now?" she asked.
"The apartment is being transferred back to your name.
The contract with Colin's firm is being withdrawn.
Benedetto is handling the legal separation filing today."
She absorbed this.
"Marcia co-signed something, didn't she.
That's why she was so—"
"Yes."
"How much?"
He told her.
She was quiet for a moment.
"She was never there for Colin.
She was there for the money."
"Yes."
"Does he know that?"
"I don't know," Giorgio said.
"But he will."
Alessandra looked at Theo.
He had fallen back to sleep, his small fist curled near his chin.
"I don't want him to hate his father," she said softly.
"Whatever happens.
I don't want Theo to grow up hating him."
"That will be your choice to make.
In time."
"And Marcia?"
Giorgio looked at his daughter.
"Marcia is no longer your concern."
Something in Alessandra's face shifted.
Not relief exactly.
More like a door, very slowly, beginning to open.
"I want to get up today," she said.
"I want to sit outside with Theo.
Just for an hour."
"I'll have Renzo set up the terrace."
"Papa." She looked at him.
"Thank you for coming last night."
He stood.
He kissed the top of her head the way he had when she was small.
"I should have come sooner," he said again.
She didn't argue this time.
She just held her son and watched the morning light move across the floor.
She didn't know yet that Colin had read the contract withdrawal notice at eight that morning.
That he had called Marcia immediately.
May you like
That Marcia, for the first time in as long as Colin could remember, had gone completely silent on the other end of the line.
And that the silence had frightened him more than anything else she had ever said.
