Chapter 16 - The Night Bianca Asked for Mercy
I had imagined Bianca begging before.
In every fantasy, I enjoyed it.
Reality was uglier.
She stood in Luca’s foyer shivering beneath a borrowed blanket, one cheek bruised, mascara washed away by rain. She looked smaller without pearls and posture.
I did not feel sorry for her.
Not yet.
Noah saw her from the upstairs landing and froze.
Bianca looked up.
His hand gripped the railing.
She took one step forward.
He backed away.
That stopped her more effectively than Luca ever could.
“Don’t,” I said.
Bianca nodded.
For once, she obeyed.
“What happened to your face?” Luca asked.
“My father.”
Noah made a small sound upstairs.
I looked at him. “Go with Denise, okay?”
He hesitated, then disappeared down the hallway with her.
Only after he was gone did Bianca speak again.
“Harrison knows the federal case is real. Preston gave them enough to frighten him.”
“Your father hit you?” I asked.
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Did that surprise you?”
Her mouth tightened.
“No.”
That answer did something I did not expect.
It made her cruelty easier to understand and no easier to forgive.
Bianca placed the backpack on the table.
“This belongs to Noah.”
Inside were school drawings, a stuffed fox, two photographs of his mother, and a bank folder.
Denise later identified the papers as original trust documents.
“Why bring this?” Katherine asked.
“Because Harrison planned to destroy it tonight.”
“Why help us?”
Bianca laughed hollowly. “Because he told me I was replaceable.”
I stared at her.
“That’s all it took?”
She met my eyes.
“No. Noah flinching from me took longer.”
Nobody spoke.
“I told myself he was difficult,” she continued. “I told myself discipline was different from cruelty. I told myself Preston was worse. My father was worse. The staff exaggerated. You encouraged him. I had a story for everything.”
“You slapped him,” I said.
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“You locked him away.”
“Yes.”
“You watched Preston scare him and did nothing.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hear excuses.
Her refusal to make them made me angrier.
“Why?”
“Because power was the only thing my father taught me to respect. And children have none.”
Luca’s expression became cold. “That is an explanation. Not absolution.”
“I know.”
Bianca reached into the backpack and removed a black notebook.
Noah’s handwriting filled the first pages.
At first I thought it was a child’s diary.
Then I saw the dates.
He had been recording meetings.
Not words exactly. Symbols.
Red tie. Blue folder. Cane man. Aunt B. Uncle P. Mara. Basement. Car.
He had created his own ledger because adults kept telling him his memories were wrong.
My eyes filled.
“Where did you find this?”
“In my father’s safe.”
“He took it from Noah?”
“Yes.”
Katherine flipped through the pages.
One drawing showed Harrison, Vittorio, and Preston around a table. Another showed a woman with long dark hair standing behind a window.
Luca stopped.
“Who is this?”
Bianca looked at the drawing.
“I don’t know.”
I did.
“Isabella.”
Luca looked at me.
The dates were only eight months old.
Isabella had been in the Thorne mansion recently.
“You said your father didn’t know where she was,” Luca said.
Bianca shook her head. “He knew someone was feeding information to Preston. He suspected a woman, but I never knew her identity.”
“Where was this room?”
“The old conservatory.”
Matteo checked his phone. “Federal teams searched the office, east wing, and basement. Not the sealed conservatory.”
Luca grabbed his coat.
Bianca caught his sleeve.
He looked down at her hand until she released it.
“Don’t go there.”
“Why?”
“My father expects you to.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he told Vittorio the child would bring you to the house eventually.”
My heart started pounding.
“What child?”
Bianca looked at my stomach.
“Yours.”
Luca went frighteningly still.
Bianca continued quickly. “The trust activation triggers a physical release protocol. There is something in the conservatory that requires your family key and Mara’s bracelet. Harrison cannot open it without you.”
“So he needs us alive,” I said.
“For now.”
The room chilled.
A crash sounded upstairs.
I ran.
Noah stood in the hallway beside a broken vase, staring at the open window at the far end.
Denise was calling security.
“What happened?”
Noah pointed outside.
“A man was there.”
“Where?”
“On the roof.”
Luca reached the window.
The security lights swept across the neighboring building.
No one.
Then Matteo’s radio erupted.
“Perimeter breach. North wall.”
Noah grabbed my hand.
“He had Grandpa’s red tie.”
May you like
A second later every light in the townhouse went out.
Bianca asked for five minutes with Noah before she left the townhouse. Denise refused at first. Noah, listening from the staircase, surprised everyone by saying, “I want to hear what she says.” The meeting happened in the library with Denise present and the door open. I sat nearby where Noah could see me. Bianca stayed six feet away. “I’m sorry,” she said. Noah’s face did not change. “For what?” Bianca opened her mouth, then closed it. Children ask questions adults spend fortunes avoiding. “For scaring you. For hitting you. For locking doors. For telling you things were your fault when they weren’t.” Noah looked at his hands. “Are you sorry because Grandpa hit you?” Bianca flinched. “Partly because I finally understood something I should have understood before.” “Do I have to forgive you?” “No.” Her answer came quickly. Noah looked at me. I nodded. He turned back. “Okay. I don’t.” Bianca’s eyes filled. “That’s fair.” She stood to leave. At the door Noah said, “Maybe later.” Bianca stopped but did not turn around. “Maybe later is more than I deserve.” After she left, Noah climbed onto the couch beside me. “Was that mean?” “No.” “It felt mean.” “Sometimes a boundary feels mean to people who benefited when you didn’t have one.” He leaned against my shoulder. “That sounds like a grown-up sentence.” “It is.” “I’m nine.” “Then forget half of it.” He smiled for the first time that day. Minutes later, the lights went out.
