Chapter 5 - Mia Had Seen Bianca Switch the Folders
Mia called Lorenzo the next afternoon.
Not Vincent.
Lorenzo.
Natalie helped her dial, but once he answered, the child asked to speak alone.
Natalie agreed reluctantly.
“Mia?”
“Mr. Lorenzo?”
“Yes.”
“Did I get you in trouble?”
His expression softened.
“No.”
“Because I said your eyes moved?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Are you really blind?”
Lorenzo could have lied.
Instead:
“Not completely anymore.”
Mia went silent.
“But Bianca doesn’t know?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
The answer came too quickly.
Lorenzo almost smiled.
“You’re taking this well.”
“I knew.”
“You did not.”
“I kind of did.”
“Mia.”
“All right. I guessed.”
Better.
Then her voice changed.
“There’s something else.”
Lorenzo leaned back.
“What?”
“I saw Bianca put different papers in your folder.”
His entire body stilled.
“When?”
“Last time we came.”
That had been five days earlier.
Before the scene in the living room.
“What did you see?”
Mia explained with the frustrating accuracy of a child who remembered visual details adults ignored.
Bianca had two folders on the console near the dining room.
One blue.
One cream.
The blue folder had a sticker with a little red cross.
Medical.
The cream folder had a gold seal.
Mia knew because she had been standing nearby eating a cookie while the adults talked.
Bianca removed several pages from the cream folder.
Placed them into the blue one.
Then carried the blue folder to Lorenzo.
“That’s the one you signed,” Mia said.
Lorenzo’s pulse accelerated.
“Did you see what was written?”
“No.”
“Did anyone else?”
Mia thought.
“Uncle Vincent was talking to Mom.”
“Did Bianca see you watching?”
“No. She told me later not to touch grown-up papers, but I didn’t touch them.”
Lorenzo almost laughed.
Then stopped.
Gold seal.
Embossed page.
Exactly what his thumb felt beneath the signature line.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I didn’t know it was bad.”
Fair.
The next sentence came more quietly.
“But after she kicked your chair, I thought maybe it was.”
Lorenzo stared toward the windows.
He could now distinguish the bright vertical blocks of glass from the darker curtain lines.
Still no details.
Enough to remind him how much he had been missing.
“Mia.”
“Yes?”
“You did the right thing telling me.”
“Are you going to tell Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Can I tell him first?”
Lorenzo smiled faintly.
“Sure.”
That evening Vincent arrived with Natalie and Mia but without Bianca knowing.
They met in Lorenzo’s private study while Bianca was supposedly at a spa appointment.
Mia repeated the folder story.
Vincent looked at Lorenzo.
“That’s enough for me.”
“Not yet.”
“Lorenzo—”
“It proves she switched papers. It does not prove what the pages were.”
Vincent hated the distinction.
Lorenzo insisted on it.
If he was going to destroy his marriage, he would do it with facts.
Not fear.
Vincent placed a thin packet on the desk.
“I found one fact.”
Lorenzo turned toward him.
“The documents you signed last week went through Bianca’s personal attorney.”
“Not company counsel?”
“No.”
“Not our estate lawyer?”
“No.”
Lorenzo’s jaw hardened.
“What were they?”
Vincent slid the packet toward him, then stopped.
“You want me to read it?”
“Yes.”
Vincent opened the first page.
“Temporary Financial Representation and Marital Asset Management Amendment.”
Silence.
Lorenzo’s fingers closed around the wheelchair arm.
“That isn’t home care.”
“No.”
“What did I sign?”
Vincent turned pages.
“Two acknowledgment pages.”
“Binding?”
“Not by themselves.”
Lorenzo breathed out slowly.
Then Vincent reached page seven.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Vincent looked at his brother.
“Page seven gives Bianca authority to direct specific private accounts and approve transfers if you complete the full agreement.”
Lorenzo went completely still.
Bianca had not gotten the fortune.
Not yet.
May you like
She had been building the paperwork needed to reach it.
And Mia had seen exactly how she hid the first pieces inside documents Lorenzo believed were medical.
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