Chapter 7 - SOMEONE USED TALIA’S ACCOUNT
Aaron Pike produced a thirty-two-page technical report.
Dominic read the summary.
Martin read everything.
The care platform’s design allowed household administrators to open staff profiles for corrections. When they did, actions displayed under the selected caregiver’s profile, but the underlying administrator token and device fingerprint remained in deeper logs.
The deletion had occurred from Bianca’s personal iPad.
Time:
10:42 p.m.
Two nights before the confrontation.
Dominic remembered where he had been.
Dinner in River North.
Bianca said she had gone to bed early.
The deleted note referred to her gripping Luca’s wrist.
The second attempted deletion referred to Luca’s distress around her.
Dominic asked Aaron:
“Any explanation other than intentional deletion?”
“Not a credible accidental one.”
“Could Talia have used Bianca’s iPad?”
“Possible.”
Martin shook his head.
“Talia was off that evening.”
Dominic looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Payroll and gate log.”
Bianca had been home.
Dominic felt something settle.
Not full certainty about the confrontation.
Certainty about one lie.
He confronted her in the breakfast room.
“Did you delete Talia’s note?”
Bianca looked up from her coffee.
“What note?”
“The one about Luca’s wrist.”
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
“No.”
Dominic placed the report down.
She read.
Then laughed.
“This proves I used my own iPad.”
“It proves your administrator token deleted her entry.”
“She used that iPad.”
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“Name one time.”
Bianca’s eyes hardened.
“You're treating me like a criminal.”
“No.”
Dominic sat across from her.
“I’m treating you like someone who gave me an answer contradicted by evidence.”
Bianca pushed the pages away.
“Fine.”
He waited.
“I deleted it.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“Because it was insulting.”
Dominic stared.
“She documented a childcare concern.”
“She documented me like I was staff.”
“No. She documented Luca.”
“That is not how it felt.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
There was honesty there.
Maybe the first.
Bianca continued:
“Every time he cried with me, she wrote it down.”
“Why would that matter?”
“Because you would read it.”
“I rarely did.”
“Exactly.”
He frowned.
Bianca’s eyes filled.
“You didn't see what she was doing.”
“What was she doing?”
“Building herself into the person who knows Luca best.”
“She may know his routine best.”
Bianca flinched.
Dominic saw it.
He continued more carefully.
“That isn't the same as being his parent.”
“She doesn't understand that.”
“Did she ever say she did?”
“No.”
“Then this is about how you feel.”
Bianca stood.
“Yes.”
Finally.
“I am going to marry you. I am expected to walk into a house where another woman knows what your son eats, when he sleeps, what calms him, what songs he likes—”
“A professional caregiver.”
“A twenty-six-year-old woman who looks at me like I’m incompetent.”
Dominic stopped.
This was not about romance.
He knew that immediately.
Bianca did not see Talia as sexual competition.
She saw her as maternal competition.
Status competition.
A witness to inadequacy.
Dominic said:
“Then you should have told me.”
“And what would you have done?”
“Addressed boundaries.”
Bianca laughed.
“You would have defended her.”
“Maybe.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice quieted.
“Not exactly.”
She looked at him.
“If you thought I would disagree, you hid information rather than risk hearing no.”
Bianca’s face hardened.
“You do that all the time.”
“Then show me.”
“What?”
“Where.”
She had no answer.
Dominic stood.
“The wedding is postponed.”
Her face lost color.
“What?”
“Postponed.”
“You said you weren't canceling.”
“I’m not.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Postponed means I do not marry someone while I’m investigating whether she manufactured an accusation against my son’s caregiver.”
Bianca stared.
“You believe Talia.”
“I believe you deleted her record.”
“Because it made me look bad.”
“Yes.”
“Not because it was false.”
Silence.
That was the first time Dominic saw Bianca realize the damage was not in the note.
It was in her reason for deleting it.
May you like
She had been fighting a record instead of changing the behavior that created it.
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