Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Had Been Erased
Eight months earlier, Elsie’s mother had died.
Clara Romano had been thirty-four.
She had spent almost a decade designing costumes and stage concepts for Romano Stageworks, the touring theater company Cesare had built from a two-room production office in Queens into a multimillion-dollar family business.
Clara had never cared much about the Romano name.
That was one reason Cesare had loved her.
She challenged him.
She challenged Julian even more.
During the final year of Clara’s life, Julian had become increasingly obsessed with replacing Cesare as company president.
The business had suffered after two expensive touring productions failed.
Banks tightened their terms.
Vendors wanted faster payment.
Julian saw danger everywhere.
Then Vanessa Cole appeared.
She called herself an arts-finance consultant.
She was polished, calm, and very good at making frightened executives feel as though only she understood how serious their problems were.
Her brother Ethan managed several private investment vehicles.
Together, they offered Julian what looked like a rescue package.
Cesare refused it.
Julian didn’t.
That decision opened a fracture between father and son that never fully closed.
Clara was caught in the middle.
When she became ill, the fracture grew worse.
Cesare believed Julian should spend less time negotiating financing and more time with his wife and daughter.
Julian believed saving the company was how he protected his family.
After Clara died, grief did not bring the Romanos together.
It hollowed them out.
Julian moved Elsie into the mansion temporarily, but he traveled constantly.
A longtime household employee named Rosa Delgado helped care for her.
Vanessa began spending more nights at the house.
Within months, people in Julian’s circle quietly assumed Vanessa would become the next Mrs. Romano.
Cesare disliked how quickly it happened.
He disliked even more how Vanessa treated Elsie.
She never struck the child in front of him.
She did something subtler.
She behaved as though Elsie were an inconvenience that should be kept in another room.
Julian allowed it.
Then came the private donor rehearsal.
Cesare arrived early.
He expected to inspect the stage setup.
Instead, he found his granddaughter crying with a damaged paper flower.
He had not known what had happened moments earlier.
Vanessa had been irritated that Elsie kept following Julian through the rehearsal room.
When one of the donors asked who the little girl was, Vanessa looked toward Julian.
Julian had a choice.
He could say the truth.
My daughter.
Instead, he told Vanessa and the donor that Elsie belonged to one of the household employees.
Elsie heard him.
And the lie shattered something even a toddler understood.
But Cesare was beginning to realize Julian had not told that lie merely because Vanessa disliked children.
Julian had begged him not to let it “get out.”
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That meant someone else was never supposed to know Elsie was there.
And Cesare intended to find out who.
