Chapter 4: What Dara Already Knew
The answer came two days later, and it was worse than Rosalie had expected.
She was staying at Giancarlo's apartment — a spare room with white walls and a window that faced a quiet street.
She had slept more in those two days than she had in weeks.
She hadn't realized how much of her energy had been spent simply being on guard inside that house.
Giancarlo knocked on the door at half past nine in the morning and came in carrying two cups of coffee.
He set one on the nightstand and sat in the chair by the window.
"My investigator spoke to Dara yesterday," he said.
Rosalie sat up against the headboard.
"And?"
"Dara knew about you from the beginning."
The coffee steamed between them.
Rosalie didn't reach for it.
"She knew he was marrying you?"
"She knew he was seeing someone.
Caleb told her it was a business arrangement.
He told her the marriage wouldn't be real.
That he needed to marry someone his mother approved of to secure an inheritance transfer, and that once the money cleared he would finalize the divorce and come back to her."
Rosalie was quiet for a moment.
"The inheritance."
"Millicent controls a trust.
Caleb's full access to it was conditional on marriage to someone she approved of by his thirty-fifth birthday.
He turns thirty-five in March."
"And I was the approved candidate."
"You were from a good family.
Educated.
Quiet.
Millicent thought you would be manageable."
Rosalie looked at the window.
A pigeon landed on the ledge outside, looked in, and left.
"The baby," she said.
"Was that part of the plan?"
Giancarlo hesitated.
"Dara says no.
She says Caleb told her the pregnancy was an accident and that it complicated things.
She was furious when she found out."
"Furious at him?"
"Furious at you."
Rosalie absorbed that.
"She blamed me."
"She thought you had done it deliberately to trap him."
"I didn't even know she existed."
"I know."
"Does she know that now?"
Giancarlo wrapped both hands around his cup.
"My investigator explained the situation.
Showed her the timeline.
Showed her that you had no knowledge of her or the marriage." He paused.
"She went very quiet.
Then she asked to see the photograph of you from the hospital registration form."
"Why?"
"I don't know.
But she asked my investigator one question after that." He looked at Rosalie directly.
"She asked how far along you were when Caleb told you he loved you."
Rosalie felt something move through her chest.
Not quite pain.
Something older than pain.
"Four months," she said.
"He said it at four months."
Giancarlo nodded slowly.
"She said he told her the same thing.
At four months.
Those exact words."
The room held that information between them for a moment.
"She's not the villain here," Rosalie said finally.
"No," Giancarlo agreed.
"She isn't."
"Has she spoken to Caleb since your investigator contacted her?"
"She called him.
He didn't answer.
She sent one message." Giancarlo reached into his jacket and placed his phone on the bed, screen up.
There was a screenshot of a text message.
Three words.
*We are done.*
Rosalie read it twice.
Then she handed the phone back.
"What does Millicent do now?" she asked.
"That's what worries me," Giancarlo said.
"She called our mother last night."
Rosalie looked up sharply.
"She called Mama?"
"She told her that you had walked out of the family home without cause, that you were unstable, and that she intended to pursue legal guardianship of the baby on the grounds of an unfit mother."
The word landed like something physical.
"She can't do that," Rosalie said.
Giancarlo's expression didn't reassure her.
"She has money and she has lawyers.
She can try." He leaned forward.
"Which is why we need to move faster than she does."
Rosalie pushed the blanket aside and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
She was eight months pregnant and she moved carefully, but she moved with purpose.
"Call your lawyer," she said.
"I want to meet with them today."
"Already scheduled.
Two o'clock."
She reached for the coffee.
It had gone slightly cool.
She drank it anyway.
"And Giancarlo." She set the cup down.
"I want to speak to Dara."
He looked at her carefully.
"Are you sure?"
"She deserves to hear the truth from me directly.
Not from an investigator." Rosalie stood up.
"And I think I deserve to hear it from her too."
Giancarlo was quiet for a moment.
Then he nodded.
"I'll make the call," he said.
He was almost at the door when Rosalie spoke again.
"One more thing.
The trust.
The inheritance Millicent controls." She looked at him steadily.
"I want to know exactly how much is at stake.
Because I think that number explains everything."
Giancarlo stopped with his hand on the doorframe.
"Four point three million," he said.
Rosalie didn't blink.
May you like
"Then she won't stop," she said.
"Not voluntarily."
