Chapter 13 - Vivian’s Story
Vivian asked for one meeting with me.
Lawyers present.
Neutral conference room.
No ring.
I had ended the engagement by then through counsel.
No theatrical removal.
The ring remained hers pending legal resolution under state law.
We later settled ownership privately; she kept it.
At the meeting Vivian said:
“I did not know Isabella was your sister.”
“I know.”
“I suspected Teresa Romano might have had a child.”
“Yes.”
“I tried to replace her on the staffing roster because I didn’t want a potential claimant wandering around Belladonna during a gala.”
I stared.
“Potential claimant.”
“That is what she was.”
“She was a maid working a shift.”
“She was also wearing a family artifact.”
“You didn’t know until the button opened.”
Vivian looked away.
There.
“Why the riding crop?”
Her jaw tightened.
“She spilled wine on me earlier.”
“That explains annoyance.”
“She was insubordinate.”
“What did she say?”
“That she would clean the shoe after serving the table.”
Reasonable.
Vivian continued:
“She looked at me like I was ridiculous.”
“Were you?”
Her lawyer intervened.
“Vincent.”
I stopped.
Vivian said:
“I lost my temper.”
“Then ordered her to clean your shoes.”
“Yes.”
“Raised it again.”
“Yes.”
She hated admitting.
Then:
“You are making this about class because it makes you feel righteous.”
Interesting.
“Isn’t it?”
“You employ people to serve you.”
“Yes.”
“That entire house runs on hierarchy.”
Yes.
“Maria spent half her life carrying your family’s plates. Isabella was paid to carry one.”
“Yes.”
“Yet now everyone pretends I invented inequality because I used the wrong tone.”
I looked at her.
“You struck an employee with a riding crop.”
Silence.
There.
Do not let a valid structural critique erase a specific act.
Vivian then said:
“I was afraid.”
“Of Isabella?”
“Of everything changing again.”
“What?”
“The trust deal. Wedding. My father’s name. Your family deciding I was an outsider the second another Moretti appeared.”
There.
Not unlike other family stories.
Belonging.
Status.
Power.
She had spent years preparing to become Vincent Moretti’s wife.
Then a woman carrying trays arrived with a stronger biological connection than Vivian could ever possess.
That did not make her fear absurd.
May you like
It made what she did with it indefensible.
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