Chapter 3: The Woman They Never Saw

I looked up from folding napkins and smiled.

Matteo mistook that smile for devotion.

He did not know I was a forensic accountant.

He did not know I stopped trusting him after our first joint tax filing, when numbers shifted across the page like shadows.

He did not know I had copied financial statements, preserved messages, recorded conversations where the law allowed, and quietly hired an attorney named Ruth, a woman who wore gray suits and never blinked.

Then came the pregnancy announcement.

Bianca insisted the family gather at her villa outside Florence, a place of marble floors, lemon trees, and portraits of dead men who looked disappointed in everyone.

I stood beside Matteo beneath a chandelier that glittered like ice.

“We have news,” he announced, wrapping one arm around my waist.

I rested my hand over my stomach.

“We’re having a baby.”

For one brief second, the room softened. Continue Reading ⬇️