Chapter 8
Matteo made four decisions the next morning.
Each one cost him something.
First, Renato was removed from every Bellandi business position he held.
Not temporarily.
Immediately.
His access to company accounts, offices, family security, and household staff ended before breakfast.
Second, Lucille lost all unsupervised access to Emma.
She could communicate only through attorneys until the investigation established exactly what she had done.
Third, Matteo transferred the remaining support funds into an independently administered account controlled by neither Bellandi relatives nor Matteo himself.
Elena would receive direct access according to a transparent budget she approved.
No intermediaries.
No family supervisors.
No secret coding.
Fourth, Matteo voluntarily opened the relevant financial records to an independent family-law review.
That was the decision everyone around him warned against.
His attorney was direct.
“This could expose more than the support account.”
“I know.”
“You are a Bellandi.”
“I know my last name.”
“Family court investigators may ask about the estate. Security. People around Emma. Your businesses.”
“Then they ask.”
Matteo’s uncle called him insane.
Lucille called him ungrateful.
One capo warned that submitting voluntarily to outside scrutiny would weaken his authority.
Matteo looked at him.
“My four-year-old daughter was collecting food from garbage behind my mother’s ballroom.”
The capo became quiet.
Matteo continued.
“If that is what my authority protected, I’m willing to lose some.”
Elena accepted temporary housing paid directly from Matteo’s personal funds only after Julia structured it so she controlled the lease herself.
No Bellandi property.
No Bellandi landlord.
No family security company.
She chose a modest three-bedroom rental near Emma’s preschool.
Matteo offered something larger.
Elena refused.
“I don’t need fifty thousand dollars a month.”
“I know.”
“I needed access to the money you said was for us.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“You keep saying that now.”
Matteo absorbed the sentence.
He deserved it.
Before leaving, Elena gave him one more condition.
“No using this investigation to force me back into the marriage.”
Matteo answered immediately.
“Agreed.”
That surprised her.
Maybe even disappointed her for half a second.
Neither mentioned it.
May you like
The next phase would not be about saving their marriage.
It would be about discovering what his family had been preparing to do to hers.
