Chapter 3 - Matteo Knew
Police were called.
So were paramedics.
Luca had not been burned.
Matteo had reached him in time.
But the pediatrician who examined him documented extreme distress and advised observation overnight.
Elena refused to leave his side.
At the hospital, Matteo sat beside her.
Neither spoke for almost ten minutes.
Finally Elena asked:
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
She showed him the photographed agreement from her phone.
Matteo read it.
His face hardened.
“That isn’t my signature.”
“I knew it.”
Matteo stared at the document longer.
Elena watched him.
“There’s something else.”
He looked up.
“What?”
“You weren’t surprised.”
“About Carlo?”
“About the document.”
Matteo went quiet.
Elena felt cold.
“Matteo.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“For six months, I’ve been investigating my mother.”
Elena stared at him.
“What?”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know how deep it went.”
“You let me walk into that house without telling me?”
“I didn’t think she would touch Luca.”
Elena stood.
“She held our baby over a fire.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t get to say ‘I know.’”
Matteo stood too.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
He hesitated.
“From my father’s trust.”
Elena stopped.
Matteo’s father, Alessandro Russo, had died eighteen months earlier.
Everyone believed his holdings had been divided between Matteo, Carlo, and Viola.
That was what the family attorney announced after the funeral.
But Matteo had discovered something strange.
One private account kept paying tax expenses for a trust nobody discussed.
Then he found a letter from his father.
Not the trust itself.
Just a reference.
The Luca Protective Trust.
Created three weeks after Luca was born.
Elena stared at him.
“A trust for Luca?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“The original documents disappeared after Dad died.”
“Who had access?”
Matteo didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
Viola.
Matteo continued.
“I believe Dad changed the succession plan.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena looked at sleeping Luca.
“Then why did Viola need me to sign tonight?”
“Because if Luca owns what I think he owns, she can’t control it without both parents.”
Elena felt the whole night rearrange itself in her mind.
The fake signature.
The pressure.
Carlo taking Luca.
Viola’s calm voice.
Sign.
Matteo pulled out his phone.
“There’s one person who might know what Dad changed.”
“Who?”
May you like
Matteo looked at her.
“The lawyer my mother fired the day after my father’s funeral.”
