Chapter 7: The Call From Serena
He stared at the screen for three full seconds.
"Answer it," Rosalie said.
"I don't—" He stopped.
Started again.
"I haven't spoken to her in five years."
"I know.
Answer it."
His hand moved.
He accepted the call and put it on speaker without appearing to decide to do so.
"Alessandro." The voice was careful.
A little uncertain.
A woman's voice, low and clear.
"Serena."
A pause on the line.
"I wasn't sure you'd pick up," she said.
"I wasn't sure I would either."
Another pause.
Rosalie stayed very still.
"I'm in the city," Serena said.
"I've been here for two days.
I wasn't going to call.
I told myself I wouldn't.
But then someone contacted me this morning and I—" She stopped.
"I think you need to know something before today goes any further."
"Someone contacted you." Alessandro's voice had gone very flat.
"Who."
"A woman named Bianca."
The name landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
"She called me yesterday," Serena continued.
"She said she'd found the letters I wrote to your father.
She said she wanted me to know that she had them, and that if I tried to make contact with you or with Livia, she would make sure those letters were used in a way that would — she said 'complicate things' for me legally.
She mentioned the agreement I signed."
Alessandro's hand tightened around the phone.
"She threatened you," he said.
"She was very polite about it." A short pause.
"That made it worse, honestly."
"Serena." He moved to the chair and sat down heavily.
"I didn't know.
About my father.
About what he did.
I found out today."
Silence on the line.
"I believed you left because you chose to," he said.
"I believed that for five years.
I told Livia—" His voice broke slightly on the name.
He steadied it.
"I told her things that weren't true because I thought they were."
When Serena spoke again, her voice was different.
Thinner.
"I wrote to him six times," she said.
"I know."
"I just wanted to see her.
I wasn't trying to disrupt anything.
I just wanted her to know I existed.
That I hadn't—" She stopped.
"That I hadn't chosen to disappear."
Rosalie looked at her hands in her lap.
"She's here," Alessandro said.
"Livia.
She's downstairs with my mother."
A long silence.
"Is she all right?"
"She's had a difficult morning." He glanced at Rosalie.
"But she's all right.
She's strong."
"She gets that from you."
He said nothing for a moment.
"Serena.
I need to ask you something directly."
"Go ahead."
"The agreement you signed with my father.
Were you coerced?
Did you sign it because you felt you had no other choice?"
The pause before her answer was answer enough.
"I was twenty-three," she said.
"I was alone.
His lawyers were in the room and mine wasn't.
I signed it because he told me it was the only way to make sure things stayed — civil.
That if I didn't, the custody process would become very long and very difficult and I might not see Livia at all during it." Her voice was steady but the effort was audible.
"So yes.
I signed it."
Alessandro closed his eyes.
"I'm going to need you to speak to my lawyer," he said.
"Today if possible.
What my father did — the agreement, the letters, all of it — it needs to be looked at properly."
"Alessandro, I'm not trying to cause problems for your family—"
"You're not causing them.
They already exist." He opened his eyes.
"Bianca contacted you to keep you silent.
She used information she found in my father's private papers to threaten you into staying away.
That's not a family problem.
That's something else."
Another silence.
"There's more," Serena said quietly.
Rosalie looked up.
"She didn't just call to warn me off," Serena said.
"She asked me something.
She wanted to know if the agreement I signed was still enforceable.
She wanted to know if I'd ever tried to challenge it legally."
"Why would she want to know that?"
"I've been thinking about that since yesterday." Serena's voice was careful now.
Measured.
"I think she was checking how much leverage she had.
If the agreement was airtight, she had something to hold over you.
If it wasn't—" A pause.
"I think she was deciding how hard to push."
Alessandro stood up.
"Where are you?" he said.
"Right now."
"A hotel.
About ten minutes from yours."
"I'm going to send my lawyer's number to this phone.
Call him in the next hour.
Tell him everything you told me." He was already moving toward the door.
"And Serena—"
"Yes."
"Don't go anywhere.
Not yet."
He ended the call.
He looked at Rosalie.
"She's been running this from the beginning," he said.
"Yes."
"The medical record.
The letters.
Serena.
She had all of it before today." His voice was very quiet.
"She came into this room today with all of that already in her hands.
The clippers, the veil, Livia — that wasn't a moment of temper.
She knew I'd walk in.
She wanted me off balance before I found out what she knew."
May you like
Rosalie stood.
"Then let's make sure she doesn't get to use any of it," she said.
