Chapter 10 - THE BLACK OBJECT
Alessandro moved before he understood what he was seeing.
He grabbed Bianca’s wrist.
The object fell.
It hit the chapel floor.
A USB drive.
Not a weapon.
Everyone exhaled at once.
Bianca struggled against him.
“Give it back!”
Detective Harris picked it up.
“What’s on this?”
“Nothing.”
Daniel stood.
“That’s a lie.”
Bianca glared at him.
“You ruined everything.”
“No,” Daniel said. “You did that yourself.”
Harris looked at Alessandro.
“We’ll need statements.”
“You’ll get them.”
Bianca laughed.
“You all think you’re so smart.”
She looked around the chapel.
“At least half the people in this room have paid me under the table.”
Several guests suddenly became fascinated with the floor.
Vivienne whispered, “Bianca, stop.”
“Why? They want a show.”
She pointed at Alessandro.
“He gets to play the perfect grieving husband, the perfect father, the perfect billionaire.”
Alessandro’s expression hardened.
“Leave Elena out of this.”
“There it is.”
Bianca smiled bitterly.
“The sainted dead wife.”
Livia flinched.
Rosalie stood immediately.
“Watch your mouth.”
Bianca ignored her.
“You never loved me the way you loved her.”
Alessandro looked at her for a long moment.
“No.”
The honesty stunned everyone.
Bianca’s eyes filled.
“No?”
“No.”
His voice stayed calm.
“I loved you differently. I thought differently could still be real.”
She stared at him.
“And now?”
“Now I don’t know who you are.”
Bianca’s tears spilled over.
For a moment she looked less like a villain and more like a woman whose entire life had just cracked open.
Then she looked at Livia.
And the softness disappeared.
“She made sure you never had room for me.”
Alessandro stepped between them.
“Do not blame a child for your choices.”
Bianca shouted, “She hated me!”
Livia yelled back from the front row.
“I didn’t!”
Silence.
Livia stood.
Her little hands were shaking.
“I tried to like you.”
Bianca stared at her.
“I ate the food you made even when it was gross. I wore the itchy dress you picked. I stopped going into Daddy’s room in the morning because you said grown-ups need privacy.”
Alessandro turned.
“You told her that?”
Livia continued, tears streaming down her face.
“I even stopped talking about Mommy because you got mad.”
Alessandro felt the blood drain from his face.
Bianca whispered, “Livia.”
“You said Daddy would love you more if I stopped making him sad.”
The chapel went completely still.
Alessandro looked at Bianca.
She could not meet his eyes.
He walked toward his daughter.
“Come here.”
Livia ran into his arms.
He picked her up.
“I’m sorry.”
She buried her face in his neck.
Behind them, Detective Harris’s phone rang.
He listened for several seconds.
Then looked at Bianca.
“We found Mara.”
Bianca stiffened.
Harris continued.
“And she says the kidnapping wasn’t her idea.”
May you like
His eyes shifted toward someone sitting in the second row.
“It was yours.”
