Chapter 8 - THE CONTRACT
Moretti House Design’s Bellaforte contract was worth less than rumor and more than Bianca admitted.
The base design fee was $2.4 million.
Performance bonuses could raise it to $3.8 million.
Bianca personally owned forty percent of the company, though profit would be reduced by payroll, consultants, taxes, and her brother’s share.
The bigger incentive was the 2 percent equity option in the proposed operating company.
Aurelia Heritage Resorts projected Bellaforte could become a $25 million annual luxury-events and private-club property after full conversion.
Optimistic.
Not guaranteed.
Still meaningful.
The concept required the main house to remain partly residential for me and Bianca while guest operations used most formal spaces.
Could Bellaforte legally become commercial?
Potentially.
The trust did not forbid all business use.
Elena herself allowed charity galas and film rentals.
Commercial conversion simply required strict review.
Livia’s residence mattered because the trust treated Bellaforte first as a child’s home and only second as an income-producing asset while she was a minor.
Bianca wanted those priorities reversed.
Then Aurelia’s correspondence helped her less than she hoped.
Their lawyers repeatedly wrote:
No work begins until Sterling approval.
No reliance on marital status.
No assumption minor beneficiary relocation is permanent.
No side compensation to household members without disclosure.
Aurelia was interested in a deal.
Not a conspiracy.
Good.
Then their CEO testified in trust discovery that Bianca told them:
“Livia will be at school full time after the wedding.”
“Did she say Alessandro approved?”
“Yes.”
“Did he?”
No.
The CEO looked furious.
Not at me.
At being misled.
Aurelia suspended negotiations.
Bianca’s design contract froze.
No automatic damages yet.
Then my own email surfaced.
Six months earlier Bianca sent me a concept rendering of a Bellaforte ballroom.
I replied:
Beautiful. We’ll talk after wedding.
Her lawyers claimed that was preliminary approval.
Julian asked:
“Did you know it involved commercial conversion?”
“No.”
“Can they argue you should have?”
“Yes.”
There.
My carelessness again.
I saw pretty pictures and responded from an airport.
Bianca used ambiguity.
Would a court interpret that as consent?
Not to trust transaction.
But it explained why some third parties believed I was interested.
Then a more damaging email.
Bianca:
If Livia eventually goes to school away, would you ever consider using more of Bellaforte commercially?
Me:
Maybe. She won’t live with me forever.
I stared.
Written a year earlier.
Before engagement.
Before school plan.
An abstract adult future.
Bianca turned “eventually” into Monday after wedding.
Julian said:
“This is why timelines matter.”
Good.
Then the boarding school.
Its admissions director spoke voluntarily after receiving our complaint.
Bianca contacted them under the title:
Future stepmother / family representative.
She described Livia as seven.
She was six.
She described severe grief-related behavioral disruption.
No clinician supported.
The school never accepted Livia.
They offered a preliminary consultation only.
The “special family consideration” note referred to discussing age, not approval.
Bianca packed trunks before there was even a place to send her.
Again:
Create the fact first.
Then pressure everyone.
Then we found the person who wrote the behavioral summary.
A private family consultant named Dr. Caleb March.
PhD in family systems.
Not Livia’s treating psychologist.
Bianca paid him $14,000 for “household integration planning.”
He interviewed Bianca.
Not me.
Not Livia.
Not Rosalie.
The report said:
Based on collateral description only.
Draft.
Not clinical diagnosis.
Bianca removed that qualifier from the school packet.
Dr. March was furious.
He supplied his original.
Another professional used beyond scope.
Then he told us Bianca asked:
“How soon after marriage can a child’s residence be considered separate from the marital household?”
He advised:
That is a legal question, not psychological.
Then:
“Would it be healthier for a child fixated on a deceased mother to leave the physical home associated with her?”
He said:
Sometimes environment changes can help grief, but not as a commercial or marital convenience.
Another warning.
Bianca had collected warnings like obstacles.
Then Julian received a sealed preview of Schedule Seven for counsel only.
He could not give me full text yet.
But he told me one thing:
“Elena anticipated commercial pressure.”
“What happens if someone pressures Livia to leave?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Julian.”
“The court order is explicit.”
I hated him.
Then he added:
“Bianca should be more worried than she appears.”
That night Bianca sent me a message through counsel.
Not romantic.
Not apologetic.
One sentence:
If Schedule Seven is enforced literally, Bellaforte will become financially irrational to keep.
I read it twice.
She already knew enough.
The trust did not simply deny her plan.
May you like
It could change what happened to Bellaforte itself.
And Chapter Ten—though no one in my life called it that—was waiting behind a sealed courtroom door.
