Chapter 4 - FORTY-THREE TIMES
"Show me."
"Carmine—"
"Show me."
The hallway footage began.
Helena entering Leo's room while he was at school.
Opening drawers.
Searching the closet.
Taking his tablet.
Reading papers from his desk.
Then one afternoon, Leo came home early.
Helena grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the hall.
There was no audio.
But Carmine could read the fear.
"Can we recover sound?"
"Those cameras don't record audio."
"Any other camera?"
Marcus checked.
A nursery camera inside Leo's room had been removed months earlier.
Removed by Helena.
Carmine called Rosa.
She came downstairs looking terrified.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"She said you knew."
"Knew what?"
"That she was disciplining him."
"How?"
"Taking meals. Locking his game room. Making him clean things."
"How long?"
"Since the engagement party."
Four months.
Four months while he flew between New York, Miami, and Chicago expanding the company.
Four months while he believed Helena's messages saying Leo was "adjusting."
"Why didn't Leo call me?"
Rosa whispered, "She took his phone when you traveled."
"There is something else."
Marcus opened access logs.
Helena had not only entered security cameras.
She had downloaded files from the estate server.
Insurance records.
Trust documents.
Legal correspondence.
Leo's birth certificate.
The will Carmine signed after Elena died.
Carmine went very still.
"Why would she need my son's birth certificate?"
He didn't need to.
Carmine opened the trust document.
If Carmine died, Leo inherited controlling shares in Moretti Development at twenty-five, with a guardian managing the trust until then.
The named guardian was Carmine's brother, Anthony.
Helena had no authority.
None.
Then Marcus clicked one more file.
A scanned legal draft.
PETITION FOR MODIFICATION OF GUARDIANSHIP.
The petitioner named Helena Vale.
Attached was a statement claiming Leo was emotionally unstable, destructive, and dangerous around valuable property.
The first example listed was damage to Helena's Bentley.
Carmine looked at the fake scratch story differently now.
May you like
It had never been about punishment.
It was evidence.
