Chapter 8
Vittorio made the irreversible decision himself.
Claire laid out the consequences first.
If he authorized full access to relevant household security archives, family-office reimbursement records, staff communications, and child-care records, investigators could discover information beyond Bernadette.
Some guests visible in footage had criminal histories.
Some family meetings occurred near the same spaces.
Some financial records touched companies Vittorio would rather not explain casually.
He could comply narrowly with warrants as they arrived.
Or he could authorize an independent child-safety review and preservation process before being forced to.
“You know what I recommend,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
“You don’t sound happy.”
“I’m not.”
“Good decisions rarely require happiness.”
Vittorio looked through the office window.
Luca was outside with Megan.
He had made another cobbler.
This one was mostly dough because three-year-olds treated measurements as suggestions.
He carried it carefully toward a picnic table.
Vittorio thought about the first one shattered across the patio.
Then he signed.
Everything relevant to Luca’s care would be preserved and made available through proper legal channels.
No family deletion.
No private cleanup.
No deciding afterward which facts were embarrassing.
The backlash began before dinner.
Two senior relatives accused him of exposing the family to outsiders because Bernadette had made “one mistake.”
Vittorio answered:
“I don’t know yet whether it was one.”
That silenced them.
The independent review found more reimbursement records.
More beverage requests.
More nanny instructions.
Then it found something no one expected.
Bernadette’s “special tea” protocol was not limited to Luca.
Three other young Rossetti children had been given separately prepared drinks at formal family events during the previous two years.
Their parents had assumed the drinks were low-sugar alternatives.
Two parents remembered their children becoming unusually sleepy afterward.
One remembered joking that Bernadette had “the magic touch.”
Vittorio did not laugh when he heard that.
May you like
The investigation expanded.
Whatever Bernadette had been doing might not have begun with Luca at all.
