Chapter 4 - The $75,000 Payment
Helena changed her story.
Not completely.
Just enough.
“My brother helped me cover a debt.”
“What debt?” Carmine asked.
“Personal.”
“What debt?”
“Carmine, stop interrogating me.”
He laughed once.
“You forced my son to scrub a wheel for food.”
Her face hardened.
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“It tells me exactly who I married.”
Silence.
Rebecca asked:
“How much did you owe?”
Helena looked away.
“About sixty.”
“Sixty thousand?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“No one relevant.”
That was obviously false.
Rebecca found the creditor anyway.
A luxury gambling club in Atlantic City.
Helena had run up losses over several months.
Carmine stared at her.
“You told me you were visiting Caroline.”
Caroline was her college roommate.
“I was.”
“While gambling sixty grand?”
Helena snapped:
“It was my money.”
“No. Apparently it was your brother’s.”
She looked toward the door.
“I’m done.”
Carmine blocked nothing.
“Go.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“You want to leave? Leave.”
Her confidence cracked.
“You’re throwing me out?”
“I’m asking you to get away from Leo until I understand what you’ve done.”
“I’m his stepmother.”
“Not tonight.”
She stared at him.
Then whispered:
“You’re choosing a toddler over your wife.”
Carmine’s face went flat.
“Every time.”
Helena left.
The mansion went quiet.
But Rebecca stayed.
Because the money trail had only started.
Julian Beaumont’s company sent Helena $75,000.
Five days later, Marco accessed Carmine’s password device.
A week later, the first vehicle-transfer paperwork appeared.
Then:
Trustee replacement.
Asset restructuring.
Reserve fund access.
All moving toward the same outcome.
Move control away from Leo’s independent structure.
Into hands connected to Helena.
Then Julian.
Then Marco.
Carmine asked:
“Why?”
Rebecca answered:
“Maybe money.”
“Fourteen million?”
“More.”
She pulled the latest valuation.
DeLuca Heritage Holdings didn’t merely contain cash.
Its equity position in DeLuca Development was worth approximately $86 million.
Carmine stared.
“Leo has eighty-six million?”
“No. The trust has interests potentially worth that much.”
“Same difference.”
“Legally, not at all.”
That distinction mattered.
Because Leo did not have piles of money.
He had protected future interests.
And those protections were exactly what someone was trying to dismantle.
Then Rebecca found something Vittorio had added shortly before his death.
A control trigger.
If DeLuca Development attempted certain high-risk transactions without trust approval, Leo’s trust could gain additional voting rights.
Carmine read it twice.
“Why would Dad do this?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Because he expected a fight.”
“With Marco?”
“Maybe.”
Then she opened Vittorio’s final memorandum.
One paragraph had been sealed until Leo’s second birthday.
But attempted trustee interference triggered early disclosure.
Carmine’s eyes hardened.
“What does it say?”
Rebecca read:
Marco has repeatedly pushed expansion strategies I consider reckless. If he cannot obtain control through Carmine, he may attempt to influence Helena.
Silence.
Vittorio had named her.
Before he died.
Before the wedding.
Before Helena’s gambling debt.
Carmine whispered:
“He knew.”
Rebecca continued.
Helena seeks approval through status. Marco understands that.
That sentence cut deeper than “gold digger.”
It described her.
Then one final line:
Protect Leo from anyone who sees his inheritance as leverage.
Carmine closed the file.
“I need to see Helena’s messages with Julian.”
Rebecca nodded.
“With legal authorization.”
Before they could do anything, Carmine’s phone rang.
Helena.
He answered.
“What?”
She was crying.
Not angry.
Terrified.
“Carmine, you need to get Leo out of the house.”
He stood.
“Why?”
“Marco knows you found the filings.”
Silence.
“How do you know?”
“Because Julian just called me.”
“What did he say?”
Helena’s breathing shook.
“He said Marco isn’t trying to steal the trust anymore.”
Carmine’s voice turned cold.
“What is he trying to do?”
May you like
She whispered:
“He’s trying to prove Leo shouldn’t inherit it.”
