Chapter 19 - WHITE ROSES
A year later, Matteo no longer kept white roses in the mansion.
Not because of Bianca.
Because Mia had asked if flowers could have another memory.
So he planted them outside the old service entrance.
Sofia called the garden extravagant.
Mia called it better.
Elena and Mia visited twice that year.
Not as staff.
As guests.
Mia stopped outside the yellow-room corridor.
Matteo offered to take another route.
She shook her head.
“I want to see.”
The room had changed.
Matteo converted it into a staff advocacy office with an outside reporting line.
The door remained open during working hours.
Mia stood there quietly.
“Is this where Mama cried?”
Elena crouched.
“Yes.”
“Is it bad now?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Elena looked at Matteo.
“Because rooms don’t decide what happens in them. People do.”
Mia accepted that.
Then she placed one of her drawings on the desk.
It showed a woman standing tall beside a little girl.
Matteo understood.
This was never supposed to become his redemption story.
He had come home early.
That mattered.
But Elena had survived six years before he noticed anything.
She carried Marco’s truth.
Raised Mia.
Kept working.
Refused to disappear.
Matteo’s job had been to stop standing in the way of the truth once it reached him.
At dinner, Sofia asked Elena if she missed the estate.
Elena laughed.
“No.”
Matteo pretended offense.
“Nothing?”
“The kitchen.”
“Our chef will be devastated.”
“And the garden.”
Mia interrupted.
“And Mr. Matteo’s giant library.”
Matteo nodded.
“Finally, loyalty.”
Mia grinned.
Then she asked, “Are you getting married?”
Everyone went quiet.
Matteo looked at her.
“Not anytime soon.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
She shrugged.
“You need practice picking people.”
May you like
Sofia nearly choked on her wine.
Elena laughed until she cried.
