Chapter 8 - TERESA’S HOUSE
Police searched Teresa’s home.
I did not attend.
I did not need the image of drawers opening and photographs bagged.
Detective Levin gave me what I was entitled to know.
They found:
Copies of Nina’s birth records.
Lucia’s dental files.
The Harbor East transaction binder.
Correspondence with Martin Voss.
A draft guardianship petition.
That stopped me.
“For Nina?”
“Yes.”
“Filed?”
“No.”
“Who would guardian be?”
“Not Teresa.”
Of course.
Her daughter Alessia.
Why?
Less direct conflict.
The draft alleged:
Enzo emotionally destabilized by spouse death.
Nina’s paternity under review.
Temporary family placement may be necessary.
I laughed once.
Cold.
“They were going to use my grief.”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“Drafts are intentions under consideration, not completed acts.”
Levin was infuriating.
Correct.
Then the paternity appendix.
A laboratory report.
It said:
EXCLUDED — Enzo Marcelli not biological father.
Fake.
The laboratory logo belonged to a real company.
Report number did not exist.
Someone fabricated it.
Teresa had not merely insulted Nina.
She had a document prepared to give the insult legal shape.
Then Nina’s real test.
Over 99.99 percent.
Opposite.
Julian filed both.
Then Sterling notified family court:
Any descendant challenge based on the fraudulent report was void and potentially sanctionable.
Good.
No months of suspense about Nina’s identity.
Then Teresa’s explanation through counsel:
She had received the report from Martin Voss and believed it authentic.
Could be.
Did she order it?
Emails would matter.
One message:
TERESA:
I need paper, not rumors.
VOSS:
Understood.
TERESA:
Something Sterling has to take seriously.
Bad.
Not explicit forgery.
Close.
Then another:
VOSS:
Real test impossible without Enzo cooperation.
TERESA:
Then stop telling me what is impossible.
That looked worse.
Still, Voss could have acted beyond instruction.
Criminal attribution requires proof.
Then Lucia’s dental packet.
Metadata showed it was assembled on a computer in Teresa’s family office.
User login:
Administrative assistant Pauline Greer.
Pauline hired counsel.
She admitted Voss asked her to combine records into an “emergency identification packet.”
Did she know it was false?
She claimed no.
But she changed headings.
Why?
Voss told her.
Negligent.
Maybe criminal.
Investigation ongoing.
Then a photo in Teresa’s safe.
Lucia sitting in the Millbrook house after the crash.
Bandage at her temple.
Eyes open.
Date stamp:
Two days after her reported death.
Teresa possessed proof Lucia was alive after the death declaration.
That was enormous.
Her attorney argued the photograph came from Voss later and Teresa believed Lucia was medically unstable.
Then why funeral?
Why tell me she was dead?
No answer yet.
Then a voice memo.
Teresa and Voss.
VOSS:
She keeps asking for Enzo.
TERESA:
She cannot speak to him until the trust issue is contained.
There.
Contained.
Not:
Until doctor clears.
Trust issue.
VOSS:
She knows about C-9.
TERESA:
Then Walter becomes a problem too.
That line linked Lucia and Walter.
Then:
VOSS:
What do you want me to do?
The recording ended.
No explicit order.
Enough to chill.
Then the coffin.
Search of Teresa’s storage property found the original funeral transport crate.
Empty.
Fibers matched Walter’s clothing.
Also found:
A spare coffin liner.
Medical seal tags.
No Lucia.
No body.
Then Graham Pike was cleared of knowing participation after phone and records review.
His failure to challenge weight remained professional negligence.
He voluntarily reported to state funeral board.
Good.
No secret evil director.
Then my own family.
Alessia came to Bellaforte? wrong. Marcelli residence called Villa Corvina? Let's name family home maybe "Marcelli House" or "Ravenwood". We hadn't named. Could simply say my home.
Alessia came to see me.
“Did you know about guardianship draft?” I asked.
“No.”
“Your name.”
“I know now.”
“Would you have taken Nina?”
She cried.
“Never like that.”
“Did your mother discuss it?”
“She said if you collapsed, family might need me.”
“Did you ask what collapsed meant?”
“No.”
There.
Family obedience again.
She gave investigators everything.
Then Nina asked why cousin Alessia was crying.
“Grown-up family problem.”
“Boring?”
“No.”
She frowned.
“Bad?”
“Yes.”
Better.
Then Schedule C-9 hearing approached.
Walter had recovered enough to attend in person with a cane.
When Nina saw him on television news entering court, she said:
“Coffin man.”
I almost corrected.
Then decided she needed a name.
“His name is Walter.”
“Walter coffin?”
“For now, apparently.”
Children.
Then Margaret Vance called me.
“We found something in C-9 you need to prepare for.”
“What?”
“Your aunt’s temporary stewardship did not merely expire.”
I waited.
“It was terminated for cause fifteen years ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“Tomorrow.”
Another withheld answer.
But now we knew one thing:
May you like
Teresa had spent weeks acting like an emergency authority she had already lost long before Nina was born.
And Lucia had apparently discovered exactly why.
