Chapter 5 - Emma Told Me What Changed After Christmas
Emma had worked in the house for four years.
She had known Lucy before Bianca married Vittorio.
That history was why Vittorio finally stopped treating her as a witness and started asking her what she had actually seen.
They sat at the kitchen island while Lucy rested upstairs with the door open.
Emma began with Christmas.
Before then, Bianca had been strict with Lucy but ordinary enough. She corrected table manners. Limited screen time. Complained about toys in the hallway.
Then Marcus’s business began failing.
Vittorio had heard some of that.
A commercial renovation had collapsed after a client dispute. Marcus lost two crews. Suppliers began demanding faster payment.
Bianca started lending him money from her personal account.
At first, privately.
Then Marcus began taking more work around Vittorio’s property.
“That’s when he started coming here without calling first,” Emma said.
“And Lucy?”
“She liked him at first.”
That surprised Vittorio.
Emma gave him a sad look.
“He used to bring her those little wooden model kits. Boats, airplanes. He was good with her.”
That made the story more disturbing, not less.
People were easier to hate when they had always been monsters.
Marcus had not been.
According to Emma, the change came after Lucy wandered into the study one Saturday and found Marcus at Vittorio’s desk.
He told her he was printing a work order.
Lucy apparently believed him.
But afterward Bianca became unusually strict about Lucy entering the study.
Soon she was strict about Lucy entering the breakfast room alone.
Then the kitchen office.
Then the downstairs hall when Marcus was visiting.
“She kept saying Lucy had no boundaries,” Emma said.
“What did Lucy say?”
“That Uncle Marcus didn’t like when she watched him work.”
Vittorio remembered something he had dismissed.
Two months earlier, Lucy had said at dinner, “Uncle Marcus uses your chair when you’re gone.”
Bianca had laughed.
Vittorio had laughed too.
He had thought Lucy was tattling over nothing.
Now that memory landed differently.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
Emma looked at him for several seconds before answering.
“I tried once.”
Vittorio frowned.
“When?”
“The night of your February dinner in Manhattan. I said I wanted to talk about Lucy.”
He remembered the call.
He had been walking into a restaurant with investors.
Emma had sounded nervous.
He had said, “Can this wait until tomorrow?”
She said yes.
The next morning Bianca told him Emma had been upset about a scheduling disagreement.
He never followed up.
Vittorio stared at the countertop.
There it was.
His blind spot.
Not ignorance.
Convenience.
Bianca managed the house beautifully. She remembered school forms, dentist visits, uniforms, birthdays, groceries, staff schedules.
Every time something uncomfortable appeared, Vittorio had accepted the explanation that required the least disruption.
Emma continued.
“After that, Bianca told me family issues weren’t my concern.”
“And you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Emma looked toward the staircase.
“Because Lucy was still here.”
Before Vittorio could answer, his attorney called.
There had been a response from Bianca’s counsel.
Bianca was willing to leave the house temporarily.
Marcus would leave immediately.
But Bianca wanted one condition.
She wanted the family assessment with Dr. Fallon to proceed.
Even after the video.
Even after the dog bowl.
Even after Lucy’s torn clothes.
Bianca was still desperate for a professional to evaluate Lucy.
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Vittorio finally understood that the appointment itself mattered.
He just did not yet understand what Bianca expected it to accomplish.
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