Chapter 8 - Colin makes his first mistake)
Attorney Rebecca Shaw arrived the next morning.
She did not resemble the dramatic lawyers Colin liked to hire for Northline.
She wore a navy suit, carried one leather folder, and asked short questions.
“Do you want a divorce?”
Alessandra hesitated.
Giorgio sat across the room but remained silent.
“Yes.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Do you want Colin to see Theo?”
Alessandra hesitated longer.
“I don’t know.”
“That is an acceptable answer.”
“I don’t want to punish him by using our son.”
“Good.”
“But I don’t trust him.”
“Also good.”
Alessandra looked surprised.
Rebecca clarified.
“I mean it is good you are distinguishing punishment from safety.”
“What happens now?”
“We document. We stabilize you. We protect Theo. We do not exaggerate anything.”
“And the forged documents?”
“Separate civil and potentially criminal issue.”
“My father’s attorneys are handling that.”
“Fine. I handle you.”
That sentence gave Alessandra more comfort than she expected.
Rebecca reviewed the nursery footage.
The financial documents.
The messages.
The medical report.
Then Colin made his first serious mistake.
He called.
Not Alessandra.
Rebecca.
“I represent Alessandra Moretti,” she said.
Colin spoke for nearly six minutes.
Rebecca said little.
When the call ended, she placed her phone down.
Giorgio asked, “What did he want?”
“He wanted to explain.”
“And?”
“He explained too much.”
Alessandra leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
“That Alessandra voluntarily gave him financial authority.”
“She didn’t.”
“I know.”
“He said the nursery videos are being misinterpreted.”
“How does he know we have them?”
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
“Exactly.”
Alessandra went still.
Nobody had told Colin.
The family office knew.
Giorgio knew.
Naomi.
Elias.
Rebecca.
Nobody else.
“How would he know?”
Rebecca answered.
“Because someone checked the nursery storage card after we removed it.”
Naomi opened her laptop.
Within minutes, she confirmed an access attempt from Colin’s account.
“He knew it existed,” Alessandra whispered.
“And,” Rebecca said, “he told me his mother only entered the nursery to check whether Theo was breathing.”
Alessandra almost laughed.
“At three nineteen in the morning?”
Rebecca continued.
“He also said any suggestion his mother intentionally interfered with Theo’s sleep is malicious.”
Giorgio folded his arms.
“He rehearsed that.”
“Yes.”
Then Rebecca’s expression changed.
“There is more.”
“What?”
“He said Alessandra has a history of emotional instability.”
Silence.
“What history?”
“He referred to treatment following her mother’s death.”
Giorgio stood.
Alessandra did not move.
She had attended therapy for a year after Catherine died.
She had been nineteen.
Grieving.
There had never been a psychiatric hospitalization.
No diagnosis that affected parenting.
No instability.
Just a daughter trying to survive losing her mother.
“He’s using Mom.”
Giorgio looked furious.
Rebecca answered gently.
“He may try.”
Alessandra’s eyes filled.
For money she could fight.
For herself she could fight.
But dragging Catherine into this felt like opening a grave.
Giorgio crossed the room.
“Listen to me.”
She looked at him.
“Your mother would not be ashamed that you needed help after she died.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Alessandra wiped her face.
“Yes.”
“Then we don’t give him power over that.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Therapy history is not evidence of parental unfitness.”
Alessandra took a breath.
“What does he have?”
“Probably videos.”
“What videos?”
“Your mother in law may have recorded you.”
Alessandra remembered the phone Marcia always carried.
The moments she seemed to appear after Alessandra started crying.
The odd questions.
How tired are you?
Did you forget again?
Do you think you can handle Theo alone?
Questions Alessandra had answered without understanding they might be used later.
Rebecca said, “We assume everything was documented.”
Alessandra stood.
“Then we find the original recordings.”
Naomi looked up.
“How?”
“Marcia doesn’t trust cloud storage.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“How do you know?”
“She once lost years of photographs when an account was hacked. She keeps everything on physical drives.”
“Where?”
Alessandra pictured the house.
Then remembered a room upstairs.
Marcia’s sewing room.
Except Marcia did not sew.
Nobody was allowed inside.
Alessandra looked at Elias.
“There’s a locked cabinet on the second floor.”
Giorgio shook his head immediately.
“No illegal entry.”
Rebecca agreed.
“We cannot search private property without authority.”
Alessandra’s face fell.
Then Naomi said,
“We may not need to.”
She turned her laptop around.
“When we secured Alessandra’s devices, we copied her synchronized network map.”
A storage device appeared.
Name: MARCIA ARCHIVE.
Last synchronized: yesterday.
Rebecca smiled for the first time.
“If any of Alessandra’s accounts were included in that device, we may have lawful access to copies belonging to her.”
Naomi began searching.
Five minutes later she found a folder.
May you like
ALESSANDRA.
Inside were eighty seven video files.
