Chapter 9 - Marcia’s hidden recordings)
The first video began with Marcia’s voice.
“Tell me what happened.”
Alessandra appeared on screen sitting at the kitchen island.
Theo was eleven days old.
Her hair was unwashed.
Her eyes were red.
She looked destroyed.
“I left my coffee in the bathroom.”
Marcia laughed behind the camera.
“You don’t remember taking it there?”
“No.”
“Does that happen often?”
“I’m just tired.”
“Do you feel confused?”
“Sometimes.”
The video ended.
Rebecca looked at Alessandra.
“Do you remember this?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was recording?”
“I thought she was sending a funny video to Colin.”
Next file.
Alessandra crying beside the sink.
Marcia said,
“Do you feel like you can’t handle the baby?”
Alessandra answered,
“I feel like I haven’t slept in a year.”
The video stopped before the next sentence.
Naomi opened the original metadata.
“There’s a longer version.”
She recovered it.
The footage continued.
Alessandra wiped her face and said,
“But I love him more than anything. I just need two hours of sleep.”
Marcia replied,
“Of course.”
The edited version removed that sentence.
Next file.
Marcia asked,
“Have you had frightening thoughts?”
Alessandra looked confused.
“Like what?”
“Hurting yourself.”
“No.”
“The baby?”
Alessandra’s face changed immediately.
“Absolutely not.”
The edited clip began after the question and ended with Alessandra saying,
“I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”
But the original context showed she was talking about assembling a breast pump.
Rebecca wrote notes.
“This is good.”
Alessandra stared at her.
“Watching someone manipulate me is good?”
“For evidence, yes.”
The cruelty was almost clinical.
Marcia had not simply recorded Alessandra at weak moments.
She had asked leading questions.
Edited answers.
Changed context.
Created a character named Alessandra who looked unstable because the real Alessandra was inconvenient.
Then Naomi opened a folder titled PERSONAL.
Most files were unrelated.
Family photographs.
Receipts.
Scans.
But one audio file had been recorded six weeks before Theo’s birth.
Voices.
Colin and Marcia.
The recording seemed accidental, perhaps captured during a video that had been left running.
Marcia spoke first.
“She’ll never give you control while Giorgio is alive.”
Colin replied,
“I don’t need control. I need enough collateral to survive the review.”
“You need more than that.”
“If we get through December, Northline can recover.”
“You said that last year.”
“Mom.”
“I mortgaged my house for you.”
“I know.”
“And she sits on forty million dollars.”
Alessandra closed her eyes.
Forty million.
Not love.
Not marriage.
A number.
Colin continued.
“It isn’t liquid.”
“It can be.”
“She won’t do it.”
“Then stop asking.”
A long pause.
“What are you suggesting?”
Marcia’s voice lowered.
“After the baby comes, she’ll be vulnerable.”
Colin said nothing.
Marcia continued.
“Women like Alessandra have always had people carrying them. Let her discover what real life feels like.”
“That won’t make her sign anything.”
“No.”
Another pause.
“But exhaustion makes people make mistakes.”
The recording ended.
Nobody in the library moved.
Giorgio finally asked,
“Can that be authenticated?”
Naomi nodded slowly.
“Probably.”
Rebecca looked at Alessandra.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
It was the most honest answer Alessandra had given all week.
She walked outside.
Giorgio followed but kept several feet behind.
His estate overlooked a wide lawn bordered by old oak trees.
Alessandra sat on a stone bench.
“I loved him.”
“I know.”
“I really loved him.”
“I know.”
“I keep looking for the moment it became fake.”
Giorgio sat beside her.
“Maybe parts weren’t.”
She looked at him.
“That doesn’t help.”
“No.”
He folded his hands.
“People can love you and still choose themselves over you.”
“That’s worse.”
“Sometimes.”
She looked toward the house.
“Did Mom ever hate Colin?”
Giorgio smiled sadly.
“No.”
“She didn’t trust him.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She thought he resented how much you loved your work.”
Alessandra remembered.
After she married Colin, she gradually stepped away from Moretti Hospitality.
At first because Northline needed support.
Then because Colin said two ambitious spouses created chaos.
Then because pregnancy made travel harder.
She had called the decision temporary.
Had Colin considered it progress?
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“I’m going back to work.”
“Good.”
“Not for you.”
Giorgio smiled.
“Better.”
Her phone rang.
Rebecca appeared at the patio door.
“It’s Colin’s attorney.”
“What does he want?”
Rebecca’s expression became serious.
“They filed an emergency petition this morning.”
Alessandra stood.
“For Theo?”
“Yes.”
Her hands went cold.
“They’re asking the court to order shared residential custody immediately.”
“On what grounds?”
Rebecca held up several printed pages.
“On the grounds that Alessandra is emotionally unstable, medically exhausted, financially reckless, and being controlled by her father.”
Giorgio’s face became stone.
Alessandra looked at him.
Then at Rebecca.
May you like
“When is the hearing?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
