Chapter 4
Valeria hired outside counsel.
Not a Romano family attorney.
Not someone who owed her father a favor or managed one of her businesses.
Rebecca Sloan arrived from downtown with two associates and the irritating habit of asking questions Valeria did not enjoy.
“You want custody advice?”
“Yes.”
“You want criminal exposure reviewed?”
“Yes.”
“You want to know what your husband was doing?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca closed her notebook.
“Then you also need someone examining whether any of his concerns about your household are legitimate.”
Valeria stared at her.
“My husband locked a three-year-old in a soundproof room.”
“I know.”
“So we start with him.”
“We start with Noah.”
That answer silenced her.
Rebecca recommended an independent child psychologist, an outside security review, and a temporary agreement keeping Gregory away from unsupervised contact with Noah until facts were established.
Gregory’s attorney refused the agreement.
They would go to court if necessary.
Then Rebecca found something unexpected.
Gregory had already hired a family-law firm.
Not after the reception.
Three months earlier.
Valeria read the invoice.
Consultation.
Custody strategy.
Child-safety documentation.
Emergency temporary orders.
Her eyes narrowed.
“He was planning to leave me.”
“Possibly.”
“Why didn’t he?”
Rebecca kept reading.
“He may have been preparing.”
Attached billing notes showed repeated discussions about evidence standards for emergency custody.
One line:
Client advised subjective concerns regarding spouse’s environment insufficient without child-specific evidence.
Valeria read it twice.
“What does that mean?”
Rebecca answered.
“It means his lawyer told him being married to a powerful woman with dangerous associates is not automatically enough to obtain emergency custody.”
The next entry occurred two weeks later.
Client reports increasing evidence of child distress, hygiene concerns, prolonged maternal absence, and emotional dysregulation.
Valeria looked at the photographs from Gregory’s tablet.
Dirty clothes.
Crying.
Isolation.
“Those are his words?”
“Billing summary, not necessarily exact quotes.”
“Still.”
Rebecca nodded.
The sequence was becoming difficult to ignore.
Gregory consulted a custody lawyer.
The lawyer told him he needed evidence focused specifically on Noah.
Then Gregory began accumulating evidence focused specifically on Noah.
Valeria looked toward the staircase.
“Did the lawyer know he was creating it?”
“We have no evidence of that.”
That distinction mattered.
The law firm might have given ordinary legal advice to a client who then chose an extraordinary way to satisfy it.
Rebecca continued reviewing the file.
One consultation involved Diane.
Valeria looked up.
“She attended?”
“Yes.”
The billing note described her as a “potential caregiving resource.”
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Diane had not simply known Gregory was concerned.
She had been part of his custody planning.
