Chapter 14 - My Mistake With the Guests
I had made one mistake at the gala beyond anger.
After Teresa’s declaration, I told security:
“Make sure nobody is recording.”
Reasonable intention.
Bad implementation.
One guard asked three guests to hand over phones.
One refused.
Correctly.
Dana Whitcomb arrived and stopped it.
“No.”
I said:
“I’m protecting Isabella.”
“You cannot confiscate guest property because you dislike gossip.”
“They’re in my house.”
“That does not make their phones yours.”
The guards returned the two phones already handed over voluntarily.
No deletion.
No search.
No coercion beyond the initial improper request.
Still.
The incident became public.
One guest told a reporter:
“Moretti security tried to seize phones after the secret daughter reveal.”
Secret daughter.
Not sister yet to press.
Headline.
I could have denied.
Instead our statement said:
During a rapidly developing private family matter, security personnel improperly requested several guests surrender phones. The instruction was withdrawn within minutes and no devices were searched or retained. Mr. Moretti accepts responsibility for the instruction.
My PR adviser hated it.
I did not.
Isabella read the statement.
Then called.
“You really ordered that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
She was silent.
Then:
“Everybody keeps protecting me by deciding things.”
Teresa.
Me.
There.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“More now.”
That mistake mattered because it taught me early that discovering a sister did not give me authority over her story.
I could protect her physical privacy on my property.
I could ask.
I could not own the narrative.
May you like
Even if two hundred guests were already turning it into entertainment.
────────────────────
