Chapter 10: What She Was Really After
Carmine read the header three times to be sure he was reading it correctly.
*Application for Emergency Guardianship — Minor Child.*
Leo's full name.
His date of birth.
The estate address.
He walked into the hallway where Russel was still on the phone and held the screen in front of him without speaking.
Russel looked at it.
He held up one finger — *one moment* — and finished his call.
Then he took the phone from Carmine's hand and studied the image.
"She's claiming you're an unfit parent," he said.
"On what basis?"
"I don't know yet.
But an emergency guardianship application requires an allegation.
Something specific." He handed the phone back.
"This is why she needed the documents from the box.
Not just the property transfer.
She needed whatever else was in there to support the guardianship claim."
"What could she possibly have?"
"That depends on what she's fabricated." Russel's voice was steady but his eyes were sharp.
"Or what she's found."
Carmine thought of what Dario had said on the phone.
*Certain financial arrangements your father made with people who were not operating within the law.*
"My father," he said.
"Tell me."
"When I was a child — I was twelve, thirteen — there were men who came to the house.
My father's associates.
I didn't understand at the time what they were.
I understood later, partially.
He had dealings with people who were not legitimate.
I don't know the full extent.
I inherited the estate when he died and I inherited whatever history came with it."
"Were you ever personally involved?"
"No."
"Were you ever investigated?"
"No."
"Then whatever she has relates to your father, not to you." Russel sat down.
"She's going to try to argue that the environment Leo is being raised in — this estate, your family's history — makes you unfit.
It's a stretch.
But with fabricated documents and a sympathetic presentation, a judge might grant a temporary order while it's investigated."
"A temporary order would remove Leo from this house."
"Yes."
Carmine sat down across from him.
"She doesn't want Leo," he said.
"She made that clear from the beginning.
She never wanted him here."
"No," Russel agreed.
"She wants the estate.
And if she has temporary guardianship of Leo, she has a legal basis to remain in the primary residence while the custody matter is pending." He paused.
"It's not about the child.
It's about the house."
The room was very quiet.
"She was willing to use my seven-year-old son as a legal instrument to take my home," Carmine said.
Russel didn't soften it.
"Yes."
Carmine stood up.
He walked to the foot of the stairs and looked up toward Leo's room.
The house was quiet.
Leo was at school.
He had kissed his father on the cheek before he left that morning, the way he always did, without ceremony.
"What do we do?" Carmine said.
"We move faster than she does." Russel stood up.
"I'm going to file an emergency injunction on the property transfer within the hour.
I'm also going to contact a family law colleague — the best one I know — and brief her on the guardianship application before Helena can file it formally."
"Can we stop the filing?"
"We can't stop her from filing.
But we can have our response ready the moment she does.
And we can make sure the judge sees our evidence first." He picked up his briefcase.
"I need you to write down everything you know about your father's history.
Everything.
Even things you're uncertain about.
I need to know what she might have before she shows it to anyone."
"And Leo?"
"Leo goes nowhere without you until this is resolved.
Don't let him out of your sight outside of school, and inform the school today that no one — not Helena, not anyone acting on her behalf — is authorized to collect him."
Carmine nodded.
"Russel." He stopped him at the door.
"The photograph that was sent to my phone.
The one showing the open box."
"Yes?"
"Someone sent it to me.
Someone who was there.
Someone who wanted me to see what was inside."
Russel paused.
"Fenwick?"
"No.
Dario has no reason to help me." Carmine looked at the unknown number on his phone.
"Someone else was in that room with Helena."
"Someone who is not on her side."
"Or someone who just stopped being on her side."
Russel looked at the number.
"Find out who it is," he said.
"Carefully."
He left.
Carmine sat alone in the kitchen for a moment.
Then he typed a single message to the unknown number.
*Who are you?*
The reply came in less than a minute.
*Someone who watched her do this to the last one too.
His name was Marco Aldini.
Look him up.
She took everything he had.
May you like
He has a daughter.
The daughter wants to talk.*
