The One Who Always Stood Behind

The next morning, an emergency meeting at Moretti Group confirmed Alessandro’s financial fraud.

He was forced to resign, Moretti Group handed over a thirty percent controlling stake to Visconti Holdings, and the family’s reputation collapsed almost overnight.

The engagement between Alessandro and Valentina quietly fell apart soon after — no one ever mentioned a wedding again.

Casa Romano, though not directly involved in the fraud, suffered heavy fallout as well.

The bank tied to Visconti Holdings, after reviewing its entire credit portfolio linked to both families, decided not to renew Casa Romano’s short-term loan.

Without working capital, my family’s silk company slid into insolvency, facing the threat of bankruptcy within months.

That was when my parents started calling.

At first it was short texts asking how I was doing.

Then longer calls, my mother’s voice softer than I’d ever heard it: “Chiara, I know I got a lot of things wrong. I just want the family to sit down and talk.” Once my father called, dancing around the subject of my job at Visconti Holdings before quietly mentioning “the difficult situation the family company is in right now,” as if waiting for me to offer help on my own.

I watched my phone light up over and over, “Mom” or “Dad” flashing on the screen, then going dark again in silence.

I didn’t feel angry when I let it go to voicemail — I simply no longer felt any need to explain myself to people who, in twenty-six years, had never once called me just to ask if I was okay.

That evening, I stood on the balcony of Lorenzo’s apartment, looking out at the lights of Milan spread beneath the building, my phone buzzing quietly in my coat pocket once more.

I didn’t take it out.

Lorenzo stepped outside, draped a light sweater over my shoulders, asked nothing, and simply stood beside me in silence.

“Thank you,” I said after a while, “for never once standing by and watching.”

Lorenzo turned to look at me, his eyes softening completely.

“I’m not helping you because I think you’re weak and need protecting, Chiara. I’m doing it because in this entire life, no one has ever deserved to come first more than you.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder, feeling for the first time in my life that I no longer had to stand behind anyone — just to be myself.