Chapter 3
Marcus did not deny the conversation.
He denied its meaning.
Rocco met him in a private conference room at Caruso Holdings.
No guards inside.
Two outside.
“You asked about Noah’s trust.”
Marcus shrugged.
“I asked a lawyer a question.”
“My lawyer.”
“You’ve been talking about simplifying the estate for months.”
“I have not.”
Marcus leaned back.
“You’re fifty-three. You have a three-year-old son. You’re getting married. Planning isn’t betrayal.”
“Why should you replace the bank?”
“I never said I should.”
Evelyn had warned Rocco about that distinction.
Marcus had asked whether a family member could replace the institutional trustee.
He had not named himself.
Yet.
Rocco changed direction.
“What did Noah hear?”
Marcus’s face remained controlled.
“No idea.”
“He heard you and Victoria talking.”
“We talk.”
“About my wedding.”
“Probably.”
“My signature.”
Marcus said nothing.
“About Noah staying with Victoria.”
Marcus’s eyes flickered.
Barely.
Rocco saw it.
“About money.”
Marcus stood.
“You’re building a conspiracy out of what a toddler thinks he heard through a hearing aid.”
Rocco rose too.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I’m building questions.”
Marcus met his eyes.
“You want advice?”
“No.”
“You’re getting it anyway.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Do not destroy your engagement because a frightened child repeated fragments of a conversation.”
Rocco stared at him.
“A frightened child did not destroy anything.”
He opened the door.
“Adults did.”
That afternoon Evelyn discovered something else.
A family-law firm downtown had opened a preliminary file using Victoria’s name six weeks earlier.
The subject:
Stepparent adoption consultation.
Rocco had never authorized it.
He had never discussed Victoria adopting Noah.
When he confronted her, Victoria reacted differently than expected.
She did not deny it.
“I wanted to understand what it would take.”
“Without asking me?”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“After the wedding.”
“Why after?”
Victoria looked away.
Rocco remembered Noah’s words.
Wedding. Papers. Daddy signs.
May you like
The pieces were not fitting yet.
But they were beginning to touch.
