Chapter 3
Bianca denied knowing anything about the garden.
She sat in the formal sitting room with Vittorio’s attorney, Rachel Stein, across from her.
Marcus’s attorney had arrived separately.
Neither sibling had left the estate.
Not yet.
Rachel asked the questions.
Vittorio remained silent.
“What time did you last see Lucy last night?”
Bianca crossed one leg over the other.
“After dinner.”
“What time?”
“Eight.”
“Where?”
“Her bedroom.”
“Was she asleep?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Rachel waited.
Bianca sighed.
“She was being difficult.”
“How?”
“She refused to stay in bed.”
“She’s three.”
Bianca looked irritated.
“That doesn’t mean she gets to run the house.”
Rachel continued.
“Did you take her outside?”
“No.”
“Did Marcus?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was in the east garden?”
“No.”
“Then why did Marcus tell Emma that you had already explained Lucy wandered outside?”
Bianca stopped moving.
Vittorio noticed before Rachel did.
It lasted one second.
Enough.
Bianca looked toward the closed door.
“I don’t know what Marcus told her.”
Rachel wrote something down.
“Did you speak to Marcus this morning before breakfast?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Maybe six thirty.”
“About Lucy?”
“No.”
“What did you discuss?”
“The wedding.”
Rachel looked up.
“The wedding was still four months away.”
Bianca’s jaw tightened.
“We discuss it every day.”
Rachel moved on.
“Why was Lucy wearing torn, filthy clothes at breakfast?”
Bianca leaned back.
“She refused to change.”
“From what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were those the clothes she wore yesterday?”
“No.”
“How did she get them?”
“I don’t know.”
Three times.
I don’t know.
Rachel closed the notebook.
“Okay.”
Bianca looked surprised.
“That’s it?”
“For now.”
As Rachel stood, Bianca spoke directly to Vittorio.
“She lies.”
He stopped.
“Who?”
“Lucy.”
Rachel glanced at him.
Bianca continued.
“You don’t see it because she’s your daughter.”
Vittorio’s expression changed.
“She’s three.”
“Exactly. She doesn’t understand what’s real.”
Rachel immediately interrupted.
“That’s enough.”
But Bianca kept going.
“She makes things up when she’s angry.”
Vittorio looked at Rachel.
“Write that down.”
“I already did.”
Upstairs, Theresa was helping Lucy build a tower from wooden blocks.
Vittorio sat on the floor several feet away.
He did not ask about the garden immediately.
Instead he waited.
Lucy stacked one block.
Then another.
Then she whispered, “Bianca says bad girls sleep outside.”
Theresa’s hand froze.
Vittorio did not move.
“When did she say that?”
Lucy shrugged.
“Last night?”
Another shrug.
He kept his voice soft.
“Did Bianca take you outside?”
Lucy looked at him.
Then at the doorway.
“No.”
“Did someone else?”
Lucy nodded.
“Who?”
She pointed toward Vittorio’s signet ring.
He looked down.
The Romano crest.
A black lion stamped into silver.
Marcus wore no Romano ring.
Bodyguards did not either.
Vittorio’s stomach tightened.
“Who had a ring like Daddy’s?”
Lucy whispered, “The man.”
“What man?”
“The man in the dark coat.”
Vittorio stared at Theresa.
May you like
They had not discovered Bianca’s lie.
They had discovered someone else existed.
