Chapter 5 - The Perfect Record
Bianca’s file was frightening because much of it contained real facts.
Vittorio did travel.
He had missed two pediatric appointments.
He had returned late from business dinners.
Lucy had cried during video calls.
Facts did not need to be false to become weapons.
They only needed to be stripped of context.
Bianca had photographed the worst moments and ignored everything else.
There were no pictures of Vittorio asleep beside Lucy’s crib after returning from Chicago.
No record of the meetings he had canceled when she had pneumonia.
No mention of the mornings he made breakfast himself because Lucy laughed whenever he dropped blueberries.
Bianca had been constructing a version of his life in which love disappeared and absence became neglect.
Marcus had helped.
Metadata from the files showed that several documents were created or edited on his laptop.
The purpose remained unclear.
Neither Bianca nor Marcus had any legal claim to Lucy.
Not yet.
Then Vittorio’s attorney found the connection.
Marcus had been communicating with a private wealth adviser who specialized in distressed family estates.
That sounded harmless until the adviser’s messages were preserved.
Marcus had been asking questions about the Romano family trust.
Specifically, he wanted to know what happened if Vittorio became incapacitated or was found legally unable to manage Lucy’s property.
That changed everything.
Lucy was not merely Vittorio’s daughter.
She was the beneficiary of a trust created by her late mother.
Most of the assets would remain protected until adulthood.
Until then, Vittorio served as primary trustee.
If he became unable to serve, control would pass to an independent corporate trustee.
Bianca could never directly own Lucy’s trust.
But someone managing Vittorio’s personal affairs could influence dozens of companies and properties outside it.
The mansion was one of them.
Suddenly Bianca’s file made sense.
She did not need custody of Lucy forever.
She needed evidence that Vittorio was unstable, negligent or incapable.
Marriage would give her standing closer to his personal affairs.
Marcus would handle the infrastructure around her.
The abuse of Lucy had served two purposes.
It satisfied Bianca’s resentment.
And it manufactured frightened behavior that Bianca could later blame on Vittorio.
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Then Emma remembered something she had almost dismissed.
Two months earlier, Bianca had deliberately instructed staff never to comfort Lucy during certain video calls with her father.
