Chapter 19 - LUCINDA EXPLAINS HERSELF
Lucinda eventually gave a recorded deposition in the civil accounting case.
Her criminal lawyer limited questions appropriately.
She admitted controlling the VFC account.
Admitted reducing Adeline’s payments.
Why?
“She was using money to maintain a claim on Rocco.”
How?
“She kept insisting on paternity.”
“That is not using money.”
Lucinda disagreed.
Then:
“Did you believe the twins were Rocco’s?”
A long pause.
“I suspected.”
There.
“From when?”
“The pregnancy.”
My chest tightened when Elise read me the transcript.
Then:
“Did you ever believe the laboratory report was genuine?”
Lucinda’s lawyer objected.
She answered anyway.
“No.”
There.
No more ambiguity.
“Who created it?”
“I did.”
Simple.
Ugly.
Then:
“Why?”
“Because Rocco would have taken her back.”
There.
Not money.
Not bloodline doubt.
Control.
Then:
“Would that have been wrong?”
Lucinda stared.
“She left him.”
“So?”
“She rejected the family.”
There.
Punishment.
Then:
“Why support the children at all?”
“Because they were likely his.”
That sentence made me stand from the table.
I had to walk out.
She knew.
Or nearly knew.
And still kept me away.
Then:
“Why withhold most funds?”
“Because Adeline needed to understand she could not take Ventresca money while denying Ventresca authority.”
There.
The philosophy.
Money as obedience.
Then the cruelest question.
“Did you know the boys sometimes lacked food?”
Lucinda looked down.
“I knew she complained.”
“Did you investigate?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I thought she exaggerated.”
May you like
Of course.
Every controlling person eventually calls suffering exaggeration when suffering becomes inconvenient.
