Chapter 9
The preservation audit produced documents nobody had expected to find.
Helena’s family-law attorney had drafted an emergency guardianship petition.
It had never been filed.
But it was almost complete.
Matteo read the allegations slowly.
His criminal exposure was described as “imminent.”
His household was described as “inherently unstable.”
Dominic was presented as a longtime paternal figure with an established emotional role in Ava’s daily life.
One paragraph referenced Ava’s “spontaneous use of a parental title” for Dominic.
Matteo stopped there.
Spontaneous.
Nothing about rehearsals.
Nothing about Helena making her practice.
Nothing about the fact that Ava had been ordered never to tell Matteo.
The lie had been prepared before the court ever existed.
Even worse, the petition anticipated Matteo’s objection.
It claimed he might react aggressively if warned about the guardianship plan.
Helena had been building a narrative in which any anger from Matteo became proof that the plan was necessary.
Matteo remembered the dinner.
Helena hitting Ava.
Helena lunging at her again.
Matteo slapping Helena.
For a moment he wondered whether even that had served her.
His lawyer refused to speculate.
“We prove what we can prove.”
Then came the federal problem.
Matteo’s criminal attorney learned through formal channels that investigators had been receiving unusually organized packages of internal Bellini records for months.
Not rumors.
Actual company material.
The source had apparently identified specific transactions, people, and dates.
Matteo asked the obvious question.
“Can we know who?”
“Not yet.”
But access records narrowed the possibilities.
Several documents supplied to investigators had been viewed by Helena shortly before they left Bellini control.
One had only been accessed by three people.
Matteo.
The company controller.
Helena.
The controller signed an affidavit stating he had never copied it outside authorized channels.
Matteo stared at the timeline.
March.
April.
May.
The same months Helena began researching what would happen to Ava if Matteo were detained.
His attorney looked at him.
“You need to prepare for the possibility that these are not two separate plans.”
May you like
Matteo already had.
He just did not yet understand how completely they were connected.
