Chapter 4 - The Fired Lawyer
Thomas Bellini was seventy-one years old.
Retired.
Quiet.
And deeply unhappy to see Matteo Russo on his doorstep.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
Matteo stood beneath the porch light.
“My son was almost hurt tonight.”
Thomas’s expression changed.
“How?”
“My brother held him over a fire pit while my mother tried to force Elena to sign away trust rights.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“God.”
“You know about the Luca trust.”
Thomas looked toward the street.
Then opened the door.
“Come inside.”
His home office contained decades of legal books.
Thomas locked the door behind them.
“I represented your father for thirty-two years.”
“I know.”
“And your mother for seven.”
Matteo waited.
Thomas sat.
“Then I stopped.”
“Why?”
“Because your father discovered money missing from Russo Family Holdings.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“How much?”
“At first? About nine hundred thousand dollars.”
Matteo stared.
Thomas continued.
“Your father believed Carlo was responsible.”
“Was he?”
“Partly.”
“And my mother?”
Thomas looked directly at him.
“Your mother covered it.”
Matteo felt something inside him drop.
Carlo had made unauthorized loans from corporate accounts to finance private real-estate deals.
Two collapsed.
Viola moved money from family investment accounts to conceal the losses.
When Alessandro discovered the transfers, he confronted both of them.
Then he changed his estate plan.
“What did he do?”
Thomas hesitated.
“I cannot give you privileged documents I no longer possess.”
“Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
Matteo leaned forward.
Thomas spoke carefully.
“Your father didn’t trust Carlo with control.”
Matteo barely breathed.
“He placed his controlling shares into a generation-skipping trust.”
“For whom?”
Thomas looked at him.
“For Luca.”
Matteo stared.
His fourteen-month-old son owned the future controlling interest in Russo Family Holdings.
Not Viola.
Not Carlo.
Not even Matteo.
Luca.
Thomas continued.
“Until Luca becomes an adult, the voting rights are exercised jointly by his parents.”
Matteo suddenly understood the agreement.
Viola forged Matteo’s signature.
But she still needed Elena’s.
Once both parents appeared to delegate their rights, Viola could control the trust’s vote.
“How many shares?”
Thomas answered quietly.
“Fifty-one percent.”
Matteo stood.
His chair scraped backward.
“My son controls the company.”
“Eventually.”
“My mother knows?”
“She was in the room when Alessandro signed it.”
Matteo’s hands curled into fists.
“Then why did everyone say those shares went to her?”
Thomas looked exhausted.
“Because the trust documents disappeared before probate finished.”
“Who took them?”
“I cannot prove it.”
Matteo stared at him.
Thomas reached into a drawer.
“But your father suspected they might.”
May you like
He removed a small brass key.
And placed it on the desk.
