Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO WANTED TO ERASE A MOTHER
“How long, Vanessa?”
Dominic Moretti stood at the head of his dining table, holding his dead wife's yellow ribbon in one hand and his daughter's trembling fingers in the other.
Thirty-two guests had gone completely silent.
Vanessa Whitmore stared at him.
“Dominic, you're making this sound far worse than it was.”
“Then make it better.”
His voice was quiet.
“Tell me exactly when you started teaching my daughter that loving her mother meant losing her father.”
Vanessa looked around the room.
Some guests avoided her eyes. Others watched with the uncomfortable fascination of people witnessing something they would discuss for years.
“Could we please have this conversation privately?”
Dominic glanced at Lily.
She had curled against his side, her uneven hair brushing his jacket.
“Anything concerning my daughter should have been discussed privately before tonight. You lost that opportunity.”
“Daddy?” Lily whispered.
He immediately looked down.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Please don't yell.”
Something in his expression softened.
“I won't.”
He pulled out his phone and called toward the doorway.
“Margaret, please take our guests into the drawing room. Dinner is over.”
Margaret, the house manager, began quietly directing people away.
Patricia Wells remained seated.
Vanessa noticed.
“Patricia, you can leave too.”
But Dominic raised his hand.
“Mrs. Wells stays.”
Vanessa's face tightened.
“She's already embarrassed me enough.”
“No,” Dominic said. “You did that yourself.”
I stood beside Lily's chair, unsure whether to stay.
Dominic looked at me.
“Emily, would you remain with Lily?”
“Of course, sir.”
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
“Wonderful. My future husband trusts the housekeeper more than the woman he's marrying.”
Dominic didn't respond.
Instead, he pulled another chair beside Lily and sat.
“Mrs. Wells, when did Vanessa first contact your academy?”
Patricia opened her handbag and removed a small appointment notebook.
“Six weeks ago.”
Vanessa stared at her.
“Patricia.”
The director didn't look up.
“She contacted us about residential enrollment. At first, I believed both parents had agreed.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Both parents?”
“Miss Whitmore described herself as Lily's prospective legal guardian.”
“She isn't.”
Patricia closed her notebook.
“I understand that now.”
Vanessa clasped her hands.
“Dominic, I was only trying to prepare for our marriage.”
“By sending my daughter halfway across the country?”
“By giving her opportunities.”
“Opportunities she didn't ask for.”
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“You promised we'd build a family together.”
“We were building one.”
“No,” she whispered. “You already had one. I was supposed to fit myself into it.”
For the first time that evening, Dominic appeared genuinely caught off guard.
Vanessa continued.
“Every room in this house belongs to Caroline. Her photographs, her flowers, her favorite furniture. Even the Christmas decorations have to be arranged exactly the way she liked them.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You knew I was a widower when we met.”
“I knew you had lost your wife. I didn't know I would be expected to live beside her ghost forever.”
Lily's fingers tightened around mine.
I could feel the little girl trying to make herself smaller.
Dominic noticed too.
He leaned toward her.
“Lily, none of this is because of you.”
Vanessa wiped her eyes.
“That's easy for you to say.”
“Enough,” Dominic replied.
He stood.
“Whatever you feel about Caroline, you had no right to make Lily responsible for it.”
Patricia quietly rose.
“Mr. Moretti, there's another matter.”
Dominic turned.
“What matter?”
“The enrollment packet.”
Vanessa immediately looked toward her.
“That's unnecessary.”
Patricia hesitated.
“I received it yesterday. The forms indicated that Lily would arrive Sunday morning, accompanied by a family representative.”
Dominic frowned.
“Our wedding is Saturday.”
“Yes.”
“So you expected my daughter to leave the morning after our wedding?”
Vanessa looked down.
“I thought a clean transition would be easier.”
“For whom?”
She didn't answer.
Patricia continued.
“The paperwork also requested that Lily have no in-person family visits during her first twelve weeks.”
Lily looked up sharply.
“Twelve weeks?”
Dominic crouched.
“Sweetheart, you're not going anywhere.”
“But Vanessa said I'd come home for Christmas.”
His expression changed.
“Christmas?”
It was only October.
Patricia's voice became strained.
“Our standard adjustment period is much shorter. The twelve-week restriction was specifically requested.”
Dominic looked at Vanessa.
“Why would you want her kept away from me?”
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
“Because every time Lily gets upset, you give her whatever she wants.”
“She wanted to keep her hair.”
“She needs boundaries.”
“She needed protection.”
His words landed heavily.
Vanessa turned away.
Dr. Harris arrived a few minutes later with his medical bag. Margaret guided him into the dining room, where he examined Lily's scalp while Dominic stayed beside her.
The physician carefully freed the pearl hair clip from the tangled strands.
“This scratch is superficial,” he said. “But the skin is irritated. I'll clean it properly.”
Lily flinched when the antiseptic touched her scalp.
Dominic held her hand.
“Almost finished, sweetheart.”
When the doctor lifted the clip, a few loose strands of brown hair fell onto the table.
Lily began crying silently.
I reached for a tissue.
She looked at the little pearl clip.
“Mommy wore that one.”
Dominic picked it up carefully.
“I remember.”
“It got stuck.”
“I know.”
“She was mad when I wouldn't take it out.”
Dominic looked toward Vanessa.
“Who was mad?”
Lily swallowed.
“Vanessa.”
Vanessa covered her face.
“Oh, for heaven's sake.”
Dominic straightened.
“Leave the room.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“Now.”
“Dominic, this is our engagement dinner.”
“It was.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Then slowly lowered her hands.
“You're ending our engagement because of a haircut?”
“No.”
He glanced at the yellow ribbon.
“I'm ending it because you frightened my daughter, lied to me, and planned to send her away without my permission.”
Vanessa went pale.
“You can't make that decision in front of the staff.”
“I just did.”
For a moment, I thought she might scream.
Instead, she grew unnaturally calm.
“Before you make a bigger mistake, you should look at the papers you signed Monday.”
Dominic frowned.
“What papers?”
“The family transition authorization.”
He stared at her.
“That was for estate scheduling and wedding arrangements.”
Vanessa's smile was small and cold.
“Was it?”
Patricia looked suddenly alarmed.
“Miss Whitmore, what exactly did you submit to our office?”
Vanessa turned toward the doorway.
“I think my attorney should answer that.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You're not leaving until you explain.”
She stopped.
“You wanted me to be part of this family, Dominic. You signed something that made me part of it.”
Then she walked out.
Dominic reached for his phone, but Lily suddenly tugged at his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Can I show you something?”
“Of course.”
She looked toward me.
“Miss Emily knows where.”
I frowned.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
Lily touched the yellow ribbon.
“Vanessa made me put Mommy's things in a box.”
Dominic's face tightened.
“What box?”
“The one from her dressing room.”
He knelt.
“Where is it now?”
Lily swallowed.
“She said it was going away with me to school.”
Then she whispered something that made my blood run cold.
“But I saw her put your special watch inside it too.”
Dominic froze.
“My watch?”
Lily nodded.
“The silver one Mommy gave you. The one with the little picture.”
Dominic stood so quickly his chair scraped the floor.
I had never seen him look frightened before.
Not angry.
Frightened.
“Emily,” he said quietly, “take Lily upstairs.”
“Sir?”
He looked toward the doorway Vanessa had just walked through.
“That watch disappeared three weeks ago.”
He swallowed.
“And the photograph inside it is the only picture I have of Caroline taken on the morning she told me she was pregnant with Lily.”
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Then Lily whispered:
“Daddy, Vanessa said she needed the watch because Mommy left something inside it that didn't belong to you.”
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