Chapter 3
Lucy was examined the next morning by her pediatrician.
No serious injuries.
Bruising on one shoulder.
Redness along her knees.
The emotional damage was harder to measure.
She refused to go near luggage.
When Teresa tried to pack pajamas into an overnight bag, Lucy screamed until she understood it belonged to her aunt.
Raffaele stood in the hallway and listened.
He wanted to break something.
Instead he called Claire.
“Start whatever we need to keep Celeste away from Lucy.”
“She’s already out of the house.”
“I want it documented.”
Claire arranged the appropriate family-law protections and advised Raffaele that child-welfare authorities might become involved because of the suitcase incident.
“They’ll look at the whole household.”
“They should.”
“Including what you did.”
“I know.”
That afternoon, Raffaele suspended Marcus from every position he controlled.
The consequences began immediately.
Three vendors demanded confirmation of who could authorize payments.
A security contractor refused to dispatch a team without Marcus’s approval.
Two senior associates called Raffaele and warned that removing Marcus without explanation would destabilize ongoing business.
Raffaele did it anyway.
Then he asked the family’s outside accountant to preserve all records connected to Marcus’s companies.
His second call went to a retired accident reconstruction specialist Claire trusted.
His third went to Peter Sloan.
The number no longer worked.
Claire found an address in New Jersey.
Before Raffaele could decide whether to contact him, Teresa entered the study.
She placed Anna’s photograph on the desk.
“Lucy keeps asking why Marcus wanted this.”
“So am I.”
Teresa looked at the image.
Then closer.
“Wait.”
“What?”
She pointed at the garage door.
A black sedan was visible behind Marcus and Peter.
Raffaele recognized it immediately.
Anna’s car.
Teresa shook her head.
“That isn’t right.”
“What?”
“Anna’s car wasn’t at the estate that day.”
Raffaele stared at her.
“How would you know?”
“Because she borrowed mine.”
He remembered nothing about that.
Teresa continued.
“She told me hers had gone in for service that morning.”
Raffaele looked again at the photograph.
According to the official maintenance file, Anna’s sedan had never been serviced that week.
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Yet the photograph showed it sitting at the Corsini garage the day before she died.
Somebody had removed a repair visit from the records.
