Chapter 5
Caroline investigated money next.
Not because money always explained family betrayal.
Because ruling it out mattered.
Helena had no financial reason to remove Marina.
She owned her own properties.
Had substantial investments.
Received family income independently.
Nico’s trusts were controlled professionally.
Helena could not inherit through him.
She could not obtain his assets merely by caring for him.
The obvious greed motive failed.
Damiano almost wished it had worked.
Greed was easier to understand than conviction.
Then the estate’s newborn-care records arrived.
Helena had been changing those too.
Nico’s night nurse had originally been scheduled for six weeks.
Helena dismissed her on the third night.
Reason:
Mother should establish proper responsibility.
Marina had not approved it.
Damiano had not approved it.
The nurse believed they both had.
The meal-preparation service arranged for Marina’s recovery was canceled after five days.
Reason:
Household kitchen will assume care.
Marina’s prescribed iron-rich meals were replaced by whatever Helena considered appropriate.
When Marina asked for food outside scheduled hours, Helena called it indulgence.
When Marina slept while Nico slept, Helena woke her to complete household tasks.
When Marina asked the staff to take laundry downstairs, Helena sent it back.
“This is your home now,” she told her. “Stop behaving like a guest.”
Caroline looked through the statements.
“She was trying to establish a role.”
“Servant.”
“Maybe.”
Damiano looked at her.
“What other interpretation is there?”
“A hierarchy.”
Caroline tapped one of Helena’s written instructions.
Wife assumes household obligations after birth. Maternal recovery does not suspend family duties.
“She may not have thought she was turning Marina into staff.”
“That makes it worse.”
“In some ways.”
Helena believed the duties belonged specifically to the woman who married her son.
Not because Marina was poor.
Not because Marina lacked status.
Because Helena thought becoming Damiano’s wife created an obligation to serve the structure Helena controlled.
Still, the lake-house plan did not fit.
If Helena wanted Marina serving the estate, why plan to remove Nico from it?
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Why prepare to leave with the baby herself?
That remained unexplained.
