Chapter 7 - The Lawyer Who Didn’t Flinch
Matteo hired Elizabeth Shaw the following Monday.
She was a trust-and-estates litigator in Manhattan with a reputation for being very expensive and unimpressed by dynasties.
After listening to the entire story, she said the simplest thing anyone had said yet.
“Your mother and brother are trying to coerce custodial and trust-related concessions through intimidation.”
Elena almost laughed from relief.
“Thank you.”
Elizabeth continued.
“The good news is they’re sloppier than they think. The bad news is powerful families mistake sloppiness for invincibility all the time.”
She requested everything.
Antonio Russo’s will.
The governance agreement.
Trust correspondence.
Texts from Viola and Carlo.
Names of witnesses at the party.
Sofia’s contact information.
Matteo hesitated at that.
“She risked her job already.”
Elizabeth nodded.
“Then we protect her where we can. But do not confuse discretion with passivity.”
Elena liked her immediately.
There was another issue too.
If Viola or Carlo attempted to characterize Elena as unstable or unfit, Elizabeth wanted records showing otherwise—pediatric visits, childcare patterns, residence stability, daily caregiving routines.
Elena frowned.
“Why would they do that?”
Matteo answered before the lawyer could.
“Because the agreement uses custodial-environment language.”
Elizabeth nodded.
“If they can’t control you by contract, they may try to control the story around you.”
Elena’s stomach dropped.
Viola had already begun that, just socially.
Elizabeth saw the reaction.
“This does not mean they can take your child. It means we move quickly and carefully.”
She drafted two letters that day.
The first demanded preservation of all communications and documents related to trust administration, party events, and any proposed changes involving Luca’s interests.
The second warned that any further direct intimidation, reputational interference, or attempts to secure Elena’s signature outside counsel would be treated as evidence of coercive conduct.
Matteo signed both.
For the first time since the party, Elena felt a little steadier.
Then Elizabeth asked one final question.
“Who knew Carlo would do something that extreme?”
Matteo opened his mouth, then closed it.
Elena understood why.
Because if Viola truly did not expect Carlo to go that far, she still failed to stop him.
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And if she did expect it, then the event by the fire pit was not spontaneous cruelty at all.
It was a tactic that had simply gone more public than planned.
