Chapter 11 - Bianca Came to Me Alone, and That Was Her Biggest Mistake
She arrived in sunglasses and a cream cashmere coat like she thought sophistication could disguise desperation.
My father almost didn’t let her in.
I told him to step aside.
I wanted to hear what she would say.
Bianca stood in the sitting room looking at the family photos on the mantel—Emma at school, Emma in the garden, Emma laughing beside my father—and I saw something in her face that surprised me.
Not regret.
Envy.
“You built a whole life without him,” she said.
“Yes.”
She let out a shaky breath. “Gregory told me you were unstable. That you trapped him. That the child might not even be his.”
I crossed my arms. “And yet you still attacked my daughter.”
Bianca’s mouth tightened.
“She shouldn’t have been there.”
“That wedding shouldn’t have existed on top of a lie.”
She looked away for a moment, then said something I will never forget.
“If Emma is recognized, Gregory loses everything. Do you understand that?”
I took a step closer.
“No,” I said quietly. “He loses the things he tried to keep by pretending she didn’t exist. That’s not the same as losing everything.”
Bianca’s composure cracked.
She admitted more than she meant to in the next five minutes: Gregory had promised her the trustees would never know, the beach would be transferred after the wedding, and Emma would “never become an issue.”
That phrase alone was enough for our attorney.
Because I had placed my phone face-down on the side table before Bianca arrived.
And it had been recording the whole conversation.
When my father heard it, he smiled without humor.
May you like
“Now,” he said, “she gets to help us too.”
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