Chapter 8: Everything She Built
Bianca was still in the bridal suite when Alessandro knocked.
She opened the door herself.
She had finished her makeup.
The dress was on.
She looked, objectively, extraordinary — and she knew it, and she was using it.
"You've made a decision," she said.
It wasn't a question.
"I have."
She stepped back to let him in.
He entered.
Rosalie followed.
Bianca looked at Rosalie with something that wasn't quite surprise.
"This is a private conversation," she said.
"Rosalie stays," Alessandro said.
Bianca's gaze moved between them.
Something recalculated behind her eyes.
"All right." She moved to the center of the room and turned to face him.
"Then let's be efficient.
What did Serena tell you?"
"That you called her yesterday."
"I did.
I thought she deserved to know the situation."
"You threatened her."
"I informed her of the legal agreement she signed and its implications." Bianca's voice was smooth.
Practiced.
"That's not a threat.
That's a courtesy."
"You told her you'd use the letters against her if she made contact."
"I told her that the letters existed and that their contents could be complicated for everyone involved." She tilted her head slightly.
"Alessandro, I was trying to protect us.
I found those letters and I realized immediately how damaging they could be — for your family's reputation, for your father's memory, for Livia.
I was managing a situation."
"By threatening a woman whose only crime was writing to ask to see her daughter."
Bianca's expression didn't change.
But she moved — just slightly — toward the vanity.
Toward her phone.
"I also spoke to my lawyer this morning," Alessandro said.
"Before I came up here."
Her hand stopped.
"The agreement my father had Serena sign," he said.
"My lawyer believes it was signed under duress.
He believes it's challengeable.
He's already made contact with Serena."
"That agreement was legally executed—"
"By a twenty-three-year-old woman, alone, without her own counsel present, under direct pressure from my father's legal team." Alessandro's voice remained level.
"My lawyer used the word coercion.
He said it without hesitation."
Bianca turned to face him fully.
"You're making a very large mistake," she said.
"I've made one already.
I'd like to stop making it."
"If you call this off—"
"The wedding is called off, Bianca."
The words landed flat and final.
Her chin lifted.
"I'll release the letters."
"Release them."
A beat of silence.
"Excuse me?"
"Release them," he said again.
"The truth about what my father did to Serena is going to come out regardless.
My lawyer is already involved.
Serena is already involved.
The letters are evidence in a legal matter now, not leverage in a personal one." He looked at her steadily.
"If you release them, you release evidence that supports Serena's case.
I'm not sure that's the outcome you were planning for."
Bianca stared at him.
For the first time since Rosalie had known her — which was not long, but long enough — she had nothing ready.
"You came into this family," Alessandro said quietly, "and you found every wound we had and you decided how to use each one.
My father's guilt.
My grief about Serena.
Livia's need for a mother.
You used all of it." He took one step forward.
"And then you took a pair of clippers to my daughter's hair and told her she was less than your dog."
Bianca's jaw tightened.
"Get out of this room," he said.
"Get out of this hotel.
My lawyer will be in contact about the letters and about this morning's events.
If you attempt to contact Serena again, that will also be part of the legal record."
"You can't just—"
"I can." He held the door open.
"I already have."
Bianca looked at him for a long moment.
Then at Rosalie.
"You," she said to Rosalie.
Her voice had shed all its polish now.
"You've been waiting for this."
"No," Rosalie said.
"I've been watching you.
There's a difference."
Bianca picked up her bag from the vanity.
She walked to the door with her shoulders straight and her chin level, the dress rustling around her, every inch of her composed.
At the threshold she stopped.
"She'll never have a mother," she said.
Quietly.
Almost gently.
"That little girl.
You know that, don't you?
Whatever you think you're protecting her from today — she'll spend her whole life missing something."
Alessandro looked at her.
"She has people who love her," he said.
"That's not nothing.
That's everything."
May you like
Bianca left.
The door closed.
