Chapter 4 - THE APPLICATION
For several seconds, Alessandro said nothing.
His brain refused to process what his eyes were seeing.
St. Augustine Academy.
A private boarding school three states away.
Fall enrollment.
Applicant: Livia Grace Moretti.
Parent authorization: Alessandro Moretti.
His signature.
Except it wasn’t his signature.
It was close.
Very close.
But not his.
Rosalie read over his shoulder.
“Oh, hell no.”
Bianca’s face drained of color.
Alessandro lifted the paper.
“What is this?”
Bianca tried to stay composed.
“It was only an application.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I was exploring options.”
“For my daughter.”
“Our daughter, eventually.”
“No.”
Bianca flinched.
“She is not your daughter when you’re shipping her away behind my back.”
“I wasn’t shipping her away.”
“Then what were you doing?”
Bianca’s voice broke with frustration.
“Trying to save our marriage before it even started!”
Alessandro laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“By getting rid of my child?”
“She would come home on weekends.”
“She is eight years old.”
“It’s an excellent school.”
“So excellent you had to forge my name?”
Vivienne stepped forward.
“Bianca, tell him the truth.”
Bianca spun around.
“Stay out of this.”
“No. I covered for you long enough.”
Alessandro looked from mother to daughter.
“Covered what?”
Bianca’s eyes went wide.
“Mom.”
Vivienne’s face crumpled.
“I thought once you two were married, things would settle down.”
“What things?”
“Bianca’s… anger.”
Bianca hissed, “Stop talking.”
Vivienne looked at Alessandro.
“She never wanted Livia living with you full-time.”
The words hit him like a fist.
Alessandro’s daughter had lived with him since the death of her mother, Elena, three years earlier.
There had never been another option.
Not in his mind.
Apparently there had been one in Bianca’s.
Alessandro folded the application slowly.
“How long?”
Vivienne hesitated.
“How long has she been planning to send my daughter away?”
“Six months.”
Rosalie swore under her breath.
Bianca rushed toward him.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Six months?”
“I was trying to make space for us.”
“By removing Livia.”
“You make it sound cruel.”
“It is cruel.”
Bianca’s eyes filled with tears.
“You promised me a family.”
“I already had one when you met me.”
She stared at him.
Then something vicious slipped through.
“A broken one.”
Alessandro went completely still.
Bianca knew instantly she had crossed a line.
But before anyone could speak, a crash came from the adjoining bedroom.
Then Livia screamed.
Rosalie ran first.
Alessandro followed.
The bedroom window was open.
May you like
The nanny was unconscious on the carpet.
And Livia was gone.
