Chapter 9
The first complete accounting arrived three weeks later.
Of the approximately $1.8 million Roman had sent, less than $100,000 could plausibly be connected to Nora or Sophie.
Most of that consisted of the three anonymous emergency checks and payments to investigators.
The rest had been moved into reserve accounts controlled through Helena’s office.
The money had not primarily funded luxury spending.
That surprised everyone.
Helena had not bought houses for herself.
She had not paid gambling debts.
She had not hidden the money offshore for personal retirement.
Much of it was still there.
Roughly $1.2 million remained in controlled accounts.
Nora stared at the report.
“She left us hungry while the money sat there?”
Rebecca nodded.
Roman understood immediately that this was worse than ordinary theft.
Helena did not take the money because she needed it.
She withheld it because Nora needed it.
Then Rebecca found the guardianship draft.
It had never been filed.
The document was dated eighteen months earlier.
Petitioner:
Helena D’Angelo.
Proposed basis:
Roman deceased.
Nora financially unstable.
Repeated housing insecurity.
Inability to provide consistent support.
Child allegedly at risk of future neglect due to chronic financial instability.
Nora’s hands began shaking.
Roman kept reading.
Attached as exhibits were photographs.
Eviction records.
Employment records.
Medical debt.
The same hardship Helena had paid investigators to document.
Rebecca pointed at the final section.
The petition remained unsigned.
“Why didn’t she file it?”
Roman looked through the dates.
Every time Helena’s investigator seemed close to documenting serious instability, Nora recovered.
New job.
Temporary housing.
A friend helping with Sophie.
An emergency check arriving.
Roman suddenly understood the anonymous payments.
Helena was not trying to save Nora.
She was preventing total collapse.
Because total collapse might have brought police, social workers, shelters, attorneys, or public scrutiny.
Helena needed Nora poor enough to look unstable.
But not desperate enough to attract outside attention before Helena was ready.
Roman stared at the untouched reserve accounts.
The money had been used as a control valve.
Poverty when useful.
Relief when necessary.
May you like
And the guardianship draft suggested what Helena had been waiting for.
Part 10 would explain why she needed Nora to fail in a very specific way.
