Chapter 6 - Aunt Rachel’s Impossible Choice
Rachel received us in her apartment above the estate greenhouse. She had raised Dante after his mother died and had spent the engagement dinner watching the children with an expression I had mistaken for anger. Now I understood it was fear.
“I bought the coat because Teresa asked me to,” Rachel said. “She sent a note from the hospital. I thought I was helping her.”
The coat hung in a cedar wardrobe, untouched. I carefully opened the hem and removed a packet wrapped in waxed paper. Inside were photocopies of shipping invoices, a handwritten list of security officers, and a photograph of Marco standing beside Lucien at a dockside meeting.
Rachel sat down when she saw the photograph. “I told Dante that Lucien was trustworthy,” she whispered. “I introduced them.”
Dante didn't blame her. He asked what she remembered about the first months after Marco's death. Rachel described visits from Giselle, who had offered to help with the children. She had insisted that Mia needed treatment for imagined aggression and that Toby was too young to remember his father clearly.
“She wanted them separated,” I said.
Rachel nodded. “She said it would be healthier.”
The papers explained why. Marco had placed his shares of a legitimate shipping company in trust for the children. The trust could be administered by a new guardian only if both children were declared unable to manage their affairs when they reached adulthood. Giselle had been building a record of supposed instability long before the broken mirror.
Dante stared at the signatures on the trust amendment. One belonged to his former family attorney, who had died six months earlier. Another belonged to a witness whose name I recognized from the estate's payroll: Mr. Bell.
We called for Bell, but he had already left. His desk was empty, his phone disconnected, and the garage camera showed him driving away with two suitcases.
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Rachel put her hands over her face. “I thought she was helping us heal.”
“So did I,” Dante said. “That is how she got close enough to hurt us.”
