Chapter 5 - VICTORIA’S VERSION OF THE FUTURE
The engagement agreement gave Raffaele another clue.
He and Victoria had planned to marry in six weeks.
Their attorneys had already drafted household arrangements because both had children.
Most of it was ordinary.
Separate property.
Education expenses.
Medical authority limited to biological parents unless emergencies required otherwise.
One provision stood out now.
Victoria had repeatedly pushed for language allowing either spouse to approve residential educational placement for a child if professionals recommended it.
Thomas remembered the negotiations.
“I rejected it twice.”
“Why?”
“Because Victoria isn’t Eli’s mother.”
“What did she say?”
“That married couples shouldn’t have divided authority.”
Raffaele stared at the draft.
“Did she ever mention a school?”
Thomas searched his notes.
“Yes.”
A private behavioral boarding program in Pennsylvania.
Raffaele felt cold.
“For a three-year-old?”
“Not immediately. She described it as something to consider when he was older if his behavior escalated.”
There was the word again.
Behavior.
Six months of supposedly violent incidents.
Repeated suggestions that Eli was jealous of Ava.
Pressure for future authority to approve residential placement.
It looked ugly.
Still, motive remained unclear.
Victoria was financially independent.
She had no claim to Raffaele’s companies through marriage.
The prenuptial agreement was strict.
Removing Eli would not make Ava an heir to anything.
Raffaele had already established separate trusts for his son long before meeting Victoria.
This was not a money scheme.
That mattered.
The obvious explanation—greedy fiancée wants her daughter elevated—did not fit the legal or financial facts.
Thomas said what Raffaele was thinking.
“If she wanted control of your money, this is a terrible plan.”
“She wanted control of something.”
“Yes.”
“But not my estate.”
“No.”
That forced Raffaele to stop looking at the children as positions in a succession chart.
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Maybe the objective had never been to elevate Ava.
Maybe Ava herself was part of the problem Victoria was trying to manage.
