Chapter 6
"Yes, Sophie. I signed the renovation budget."
Luca didn't try to soften the answer.
He looked straight at his niece.
"I approved improvements to the house. But I never agreed to give away your bedroom."
Sophie stared at him.
"Did you read all the papers?"
His silence lasted a little too long.
Then he answered.
"Not carefully enough."
Vanessa immediately stepped forward.
"Thank you. That's exactly what I've been trying to explain."
Luca looked at her.
"No. Don't do that."
"What?"
"Don't turn my mistake into permission to hurt Sophie."
Vanessa stopped.
He turned back to his niece.
"When I signed that budget, I trusted the people making the arrangements. I should have asked more questions."
Sophie touched her bracelet.
"Would you have said yes if Vanessa asked?"
"No."
"Even if she said you needed a guest room?"
"Even then."
"How come?"
Luca looked toward the windows.
Then he smiled sadly.
"Because your mother used to sit in that window seat when she was your age."
Sophie nodded.
"She told me."
"She'd sit there with a book and pretend she couldn't hear our father calling her to dinner."
A tiny smile crossed Sophie's face.
"She did that?"
"Constantly."
"Did she get in trouble?"
"Usually I did. I was supposed to find her."
Sophie almost laughed.
But the smile disappeared as quickly as it came.
"I don't want them to take her room apart."
Luca reached across the table.
"They won't."
This time, she let him take her hand.
I noticed Vanessa watching them.
Her expression wasn't simply angry.
It was wounded in a way that made me uncomfortable.
For a moment, I could imagine her standing outside this family's grief, wondering whether she'd ever be allowed inside.
Then I remembered the spoons scattered on the floor.
The threats.
The frightened little girl practicing a French sentence she didn't understand.
Feeling excluded didn't give Vanessa the right to make someone else disappear.
She spoke quietly.
"When I was twelve, my mother sent me to boarding school."
Luca looked up.
"You told me."
"I cried for the first month."
Sophie watched her.
Vanessa continued.
"But I learned how to look after myself. I made friends. I became someone who didn't need to beg for attention."
Madame Fournier's expression softened.
"I'm sorry you experienced that separation so painfully."
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
"It made me stronger."
"Perhaps," the French woman replied. "But that doesn't mean every frightened child needs the same experience."
Vanessa looked away.
"My mother always said she was giving me an opportunity."
Luca studied her.
"Did you believe her?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"Eventually."
"Did she ask whether you wanted to go?"
The question landed harder than anything he'd said before.
Vanessa looked down.
"No."
For several seconds, I saw the woman she might have become if she'd learned something different from her childhood.
Then Luca spoke.
"You know what that felt like. And you did it to Sophie anyway."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I thought she'd thank us one day."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
Vanessa had no answer.
Mrs. Carter moved toward the table.
"Mr. Moretti, I want to apologize for the room arrangements."
Luca shook his head.
"We'll discuss responsibilities without blaming people who were given misleading instructions."
The housekeeper nodded.
"Thank you, sir."
He turned toward me.
"And Emily, I owe you an apology too."
My throat tightened.
"Sir, you didn't make me pick up those spoons."
"No. But you worked in my home believing you could lose your job for telling me the truth."
He glanced toward Vanessa.
"That should never have happened."
I looked down at the white tablecloth.
"I was afraid, sir."
"I know."
"I need my job."
"You won't lose it for protecting a child."
Vanessa made a small, impatient sound.
"Are we going to discuss the housemaids now too?"
Luca looked at her.
"We're discussing what happens when people believe your instructions matter more than their dignity."
The guests were completely silent.
I had never imagined hearing those words spoken on my behalf.
Madame Fournier gently closed the application.
"Mr. Moretti, there is no reason to make an enrollment decision tonight."
Luca nodded.
"Then let's make one thing clear. Sophie stays here."
Vanessa's eyes filled again.
"You haven't even considered what this means for the future."
"I have."
"No, Luca. You don't understand how many arrangements have already been made."
He frowned.
"What arrangements?"
Vanessa looked toward the guests.
"People came tonight expecting an announcement."
Madame Fournier went very still.
"What announcement?"
Vanessa's expression changed.
She had realized she'd said too much.
Luca leaned forward.
"Vanessa."
She looked down.
"Several donors were going to support the school."
"Through your charity?"
"Yes."
"Because Sophie was attending?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"It was supposed to be a beautiful family story."
Madame Fournier slowly opened the blue folder again.
She removed a folded cream-colored program.
"I wondered why Mrs. Bellini included this with the enrollment materials."
Luca took it.
Across the front was a photograph of Sophie smiling beside her mother.
Beneath it, elegant gold lettering announced a charitable education initiative.
I watched Luca's expression change as he read.
Then he turned the page.
There was a planned dinner announcement describing Sophie's departure as an example of courage and independence.
And above the announcement, in large gold letters, were five words.
IN MEMORY OF JULIA MORETTI.
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
May you like
His voice broke.
"You were going to use my dead sister's name to celebrate sending her daughter away?"
