Chapter 10 - LUCA’S MOTHER
Gianna Rinaldi had been nothing like Bianca.
That realization made Dominic uncomfortable because dead people became unfair comparisons.
Gianna had flaws.
She forgot appointments.
Hated formal dinners.
Argued with Dominic about his family’s business entanglements.
She was also warm in ways Dominic was not.
Luca inherited her easy smile.
Talia knew Gianna only through stories.
She had been hired four months after Gianna’s death, after Megan resigned and two temporary caregivers failed.
The agency told her the household required discretion.
She assumed that meant wealthy-family privacy.
It meant more.
Rinaldi security.
Rinaldi reputation.
A grieving father who spoke softly enough to make staff more nervous than men who shouted.
On Talia’s first day, Dominic said:
“My son has had too many people leave.”
Talia remembered.
“I won’t promise permanence.”
He looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because I don't control life.”
“What can you promise?”
“Routine while I’m here.”
Dominic hired her.
Now those words returned.
Routine while I’m here.
Talia had never tried to replace Gianna.
She kept Gianna’s photograph visible in the nursery.
When Luca pointed at it, Talia said:
“Mommy.”
Not Bianca.
Not “the lady.”
Mommy.
Bianca once overheard.
“You need to stop doing that.”
Talia looked up.
“Doing what?”
“Keeping him attached to a photograph.”
“He’s learning family names.”
“He never knew her.”
Talia froze.
“He knew her voice.”
“He was a baby.”
“Babies know people.”
Bianca’s expression hardened.
“That isn't your decision.”
Talia let it go.
She never documented the argument.
Now she wished she had.
When Dominic learned, he went silent.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Talia answered honestly during their first phone call since her suspension.
“Because every time I told you something Bianca did, I risked sounding like I had a personal issue with her.”
“Did you?”
“I didn't like how she treated staff.”
“That’s personal.”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
Talia took a breath.
“I thought she was trying too hard to erase Gianna.”
Silence.
Dominic’s voice cooled.
“Careful.”
Talia almost apologized.
Then stopped.
“You asked.”
He said nothing.
Talia continued:
“She called herself Luca’s mother before you were married.”
“She would become his stepmother.”
“Yes.”
“That's not erasing Gianna.”
“No.”
Talia’s voice remained even.
“Taking down Gianna’s photograph from the nursery was.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
“It disappeared for three days. I put it back.”
“Who removed it?”
“I asked Bianca. She said the room needed to feel forward-looking.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Why didn't Martin tell me?”
“Maybe he didn't know.”
“Why didn't you?”
Talia laughed without humor.
“We're back to the same question.”
He heard it.
Would you have believed me?
Dominic sat in his library, alone.
His power had made him think information naturally flowed upward.
It did not.
People filtered truth according to what they thought he wanted.
Bianca understood that.
Talia feared it.
He had never examined it.
That night he found the nursery photograph in a drawer.
Gianna holding newborn Luca.
On the back, in Gianna’s handwriting:
Our impossible little man.
Dominic stared for a long time.
Bianca entered.
“What are you doing?”
“Why did you remove this?”
Her face changed.
“It was temporary.”
“Why?”
“I told Talia.”
“I’m asking you.”
Bianca crossed her arms.
“The nursery felt like a memorial.”
“It was one photograph.”
“She made it central.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“You did.”
Bianca stared.
“How?”
“By treating it as competition.”
She looked away.
Dominic realized then that Bianca did not simply want a future with him.
She wanted a future that validated her by replacing what came before.
Gianna.
Megan.
Talia.
Anyone who made Bianca feel secondary became a problem to eliminate.
May you like
And Luca was too young to explain that the people he loved did not cancel one another out.
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