Chapter 5
Isolde finally explained her staircase threat through counsel.
She said:
“When I said Birdie could lose her mother, I meant Maeve.”
Lorenzo’s attorney asked:
“How can Birdie lose a woman she has never met?”
“I knew how to contact her.”
“Did Lorenzo?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Maeve wanted privacy.”
Maeve’s lawyer immediately disputed that characterization.
Then Grace asked:
“Why did you smile when Lorenzo said Elena was dead?”
Isolde looked away.
“Because he misunderstood me.”
That was probably true.
It was also not enough.
The Mercer Foundation’s board placed Isolde on leave.
The organization hired outside counsel because the archive problem implicated more than family drama.
Post-adoption records contained extraordinarily sensitive information.
Birth histories.
Medical records.
Identifying details.
Consent documents.
Personal letters.
Even if Isolde had originally possessed legitimate administrative access, using it for personal purposes could create serious privacy, fiduciary, employment, and potentially criminal consequences depending on what investigators proved.
The foundation searched Isolde’s access pattern across the archive.
Good news:
There was no evidence she had opened hundreds of unrelated files.
Bad news:
She had repeatedly accessed exactly three.
Birdie’s file.
Maeve’s correspondence folder.
And the administrative routing record governing where letters were forwarded.
This was targeted.
Then the board found an email Isolde sent to the records manager three years earlier.
Any Vescari-related correspondence should come to me before external forwarding. Security sensitivity.
The records manager replied:
We need written authority from the parties or legal counsel. Confidential files cannot be routed informally because of a donor relationship.
Isolde answered:
I’ll take responsibility.
The manager did not implement the request.
So Isolde used her own transition credentials when mail came in.
Physical envelopes were harder.
Two had been logged at the foundation front desk, then signed out personally by Isolde.
Reason:
Return to legacy custodian.
They were never returned.
One sat in her handbag at the engagement party.
Lorenzo asked why she would carry it there.
Investigators did not know.
Birdie supplied a possibility.
“She was mad because I asked for it.”
The child interviewer said:
“Did she tell you what was inside?”
“No.”
“Did she say who sent it?”
“She said nobody.”
“Did she say anything else?”
Birdie thought.
“She said after she married Daddy, she was going to fix all the confusion.”
“What confusion?”
“She said I had too many women in my head.”
Elena.
Maeve.
May you like
Isolde.
A seven-year-old had summarized the entire conflict better than the adults.
