Chapter 2
I moved Lucy out of the breakfast room before watching anything else.
That frustrated Bianca.
Good.
She needed my daughter present because a frightened child made every lie easier to distort.
Emma took Lucy upstairs with two guards I trusted.
I remained downstairs with the phone.
Marcus sat under guard now.
Bianca stayed standing.
“Play it,” I said.
Emma’s fifth recording began.
Bianca was speaking quietly beside the breakfast table.
Marcus answered from somewhere off-camera.
“You’re pushing too fast.”
“She still runs to him every time.”
“Because she’s three.”
“Exactly. If he keeps treating every tantrum like an emergency, the capos will notice.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
The recording continued.
Marcus asked:
“And the school?”
Bianca answered:
“Already handled.”
I stopped the video.
“What school?”
Bianca’s face went blank.
Marcus looked away.
I turned toward him.
“What school?”
“No idea.”
I almost smiled.
“You asked the question.”
He stayed silent.
I resumed the recording.
Bianca again:
“Her teachers need to start documenting aggression, refusal, food problems. Anything that makes Vittorio look blind where Lucy is concerned.”
Silence filled the room.
There it was.
Not abuse for pleasure alone.
A file.
A narrative.
My daughter was being pushed, frightened, deprived, then observed for reactions.
Create distress.
Label the distress.
Then blame me for refusing to see it.
I looked at Bianca.
“You wanted people to think Lucy was unstable.”
She folded her arms.
“I wanted you to stop indulging her.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You wanted her behavior to become evidence against me.”
Her expression changed.
Marcus finally spoke.
“Against your judgment.”
I looked at him.
He realized he had said too much.
“Explain.”
He said nothing.
I let the silence stretch.
Then:
“What happens once the capos believe I cannot manage my own house?”
Marcus stared.
I already knew the answer.
Someone asks whether I can manage Romano.
The breakfast room had been a laboratory.
May you like
Lucy was the test subject.
And I was the target.
