Chapter 4
Viola had contacted Elena’s obstetrician.
Twice.
The doctor called Elena personally after receiving Rebecca’s written request for records.
“She said she was helping the family plan postpartum support,” Dr. Meredith Lang explained.
“What did she ask?”
Elena sat beside Matteo in Rebecca’s office.
Dr. Lang answered carefully.
“Whether sleep deprivation, crying spells, anxiety, or hormonal changes could temporarily affect a new mother’s legal decision-making capacity.”
Matteo’s expression changed.
Elena went very still.
“What did you tell her?”
“That postpartum recovery varies widely and that I would never make a capacity determination from family descriptions.”
“Did she ask you to?”
“She asked whether I could provide a general letter.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Dr. Lang had documented the call because it struck her as unusual.
The second call was more specific.
Viola asked whether Elena’s prescription pain medication after delivery could affect judgment.
Elena had taken the medication for three days.
Exactly as prescribed.
She stopped it weeks ago.
Rebecca thanked the doctor and ended the call.
No one spoke for a moment.
Then Matteo said:
“She was building incapacity.”
Rebecca corrected him.
“She was asking whether she could.”
That distinction still mattered.
They found more.
The night nurse Matteo hired for Luca’s first month had received strange instructions from Viola.
Keep a written log of Elena’s sleep.
Record missed meals.
Record crying.
Record arguments between Elena and Matteo.
The nurse assumed Matteo requested it.
He had not.
She refused to write emotional observations but kept ordinary infant-care notes.
Those notes showed something important.
Elena was tired.
Sometimes tearful.
Sometimes irritable.
But consistently feeding Luca, attending appointments, changing him, asking appropriate questions, and sleeping whenever someone else safely held the baby.
No evidence of incapacity.
No evidence of dangerous behavior.
The same facts Viola seemed to want interpreted as instability looked completely ordinary when documented by a neutral professional.
Matteo read the nurse’s notes.
Then looked at Elena.
“How long did you think I believed them?”
Elena understood the question.
“Not that I was crazy.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She looked down.
“I thought you believed I was overreacting.”
He remembered every time he had said some version of:
You’re exhausted.
Viola is difficult with everyone.
Carlo is being Carlo.
Don’t turn family politics into something bigger than it is.
He had meant calm.
It had functioned as dismissal.
Elena looked at him.
“When people keep telling a new mother she’s emotional, eventually every objection starts sounding like evidence against her.”
Matteo felt the sentence land.
Rebecca let the silence sit.
Then she turned back to the documents.
“If Carlo needed expanded operational power and Viola was exploring a way to call Elena temporarily incapable, we need to know what authority Elena actually has under the new trust.”
The answer was straightforward.
As Luca’s mother and co-trustee, Elena had no role in day-to-day operations.
But once the new trust administration finalized, certain related-party transactions involving Carlo would require independent review.
That was enough.
May you like
Rebecca looked at Matteo.
“Now we know what to audit first.”
