Chapter 5 - A Name on a Form
The attorney Rosa chose worked above a dentist's office and kept crayons on the waiting-room table. Her name was Helen Park. She wore comfortable shoes and never called Alessandro "Don."
"Let's start with what you want," Helen said.
"I want my daughter to be safe. I want to keep my job history intact. And I want this man to stop behaving as though his suspicion gives him parental rights."
"All reasonable. Are you willing to establish paternity?"
Rosa looked through the glass wall. Lily was showing Maribel how Bun could sit in a chair.
"Yes," Rosa said. "But I decide when and how my child participates."
"Good. We'll use a neutral accredited lab with documented consent. No secret samples, no guards collecting toothbrushes."
Rosa almost smiled. "You really have met people like him."
"I've met people who think paying a bill buys a decision. It doesn't."
They drafted a letter: Rosa would consent to a scheduled test with independent oversight. Until the result, Alessandro would not contact Lily directly or send anyone to the apartment. Afterward, any parenting arrangement would be discussed with the child's welfare first.
At the estate, Alessandro read every paragraph without interrupting Helen, who had come to meet his own lawyer. When she finished, he asked, "And if the result confirms I'm her father?"
"Then she still has a mother, Mr. Moretti."
"I understand."
"Do you?" Helen asked. "Because I have a client who has spent years calculating the cost of hearing the wrong footstep in a hallway."
Alessandro took a pen and signed the testing agreement.
"Tell Rosa I won't come to her home."
"Tell her yourself once she wants to hear it."
After Helen left, Bruno entered with a tray. "Shall I pour coffee?"
"No. Sit down."
"If I sit down every time you upset this household, I'll never finish my duties."
"Did you know? About Lily?"
The older man held Alessandro's gaze. "I knew she was Rosa's child. I knew she was loved. I did not know for certain whose face she might grow into."
"You could have told me she was struggling."
"I told you Rosa needed consistent childcare. You said to make whatever arrangements I thought necessary. Then you got on a plane."
Alessandro remembered the conversation. He had considered himself generous for granting it.
"I was never here," he said.
"No, sir," Bruno replied. "You were not."
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His phone vibrated with a photograph from an unfamiliar number: Lily walking beside Maribel outside the dentist's building. Beneath it were four words.
Families have vulnerable places.
