Chapter 3 - The Envelope Behind the Dress
Robert told Rosalie to stay with Livia.
Then he returned to the bridal room.
Bianca was on the phone.
"Yes," she hissed. "He's having some kind of breakdown."
She saw Robert.
Her voice instantly softened.
"I'll call you back."
She ended the call.
Robert walked toward the garment bag.
Bianca stepped in front of him.
"Don't."
"Move."
"Those are my personal things."
Robert looked at her.
"We were supposed to be married in eight minutes. There aren't many personal things left between us."
He reached around her.
Bianca grabbed his wrist.
"Robert."
He looked down at her hand.
She released him.
He opened the garment bag.
Behind a silk robe was a thick manila envelope.
Bianca folded her arms.
"You're humiliating yourself."
Robert removed it.
On the front was the name of a family-law firm.
His expression changed.
Bianca spoke quickly.
"It's routine estate planning."
"Estate planning through a custody attorney?"
She froze.
Robert opened the flap.
Inside were draft documents.
Temporary guardianship.
Educational placement.
A petition authorizing extended residential schooling.
And an affidavit claiming Robert had requested that Bianca oversee Livia's education because his business travel made him "unable to maintain stable parental supervision."
Robert read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
"What the hell is this?"
Bianca exhaled impatiently.
"A solution."
"To what?"
"To us."
Robert stared.
Bianca gestured toward the room.
"This. Today. Our marriage. Our future."
"My daughter is my future."
"She's also the reason we've had zero privacy for three years."
Robert's jaw tightened.
Bianca continued.
"You cancel dinners because she has nightmares. You leave business trips because she gets a fever. Your mother practically lives here. Caroline is dead, Robert, but somehow I'm marrying all three of them."
The words landed hard.
He stepped toward her.
"You forged my signature."
"I had your authorization."
"No, you didn't."
"You told me to handle wedding paperwork."
"Wedding paperwork."
She rolled her eyes.
"This is exactly why nothing gets done unless I do it."
Robert looked through the remaining pages.
Then stopped.
Another document was clipped behind the guardianship petition.
A draft amendment to a family trust.
The Balboa Family Trust.
His late father's estate.
Robert looked up slowly.
"Why is this here?"
Bianca's face changed.
Only slightly.
But he saw it.
"I don't know."
"It's in your envelope."
"My attorney probably included it."
"This trust has nothing to do with you."
"Not yet."
The room went silent.
Bianca realized what she'd said.
Robert stared at the page.
Under the current trust structure, if Robert died, the majority of his family holdings went directly into a protected trust for Livia.
Bianca, even as his wife, would receive only specific personal assets.
The amendment would change that.
It would make a future spouse a co-trustee.
With broad management authority.
Robert looked at Bianca.
"Did you ask my lawyer for this?"
She smiled tightly.
"Couples update their estate plans when they marry."
"You didn't ask me."
"I was going to."
"When?"
"After the honeymoon."
"After you shipped my daughter to Vermont?"
Bianca's voice sharpened.
"Stop making everything dramatic."
From the doorway came a quiet voice.
"Robert."
Rosalie stood there.
She held another piece of paper.
Her face had gone pale.
May you like
"I think you need to see what Bianca threw away this morning."
👉 The trust amendment was bad enough—but the paper Rosalie had pulled from Bianca's trash showed exactly how much money Livia stood between Bianca and.
