Chapter 5
Roman ordered an independent audit.
Not by DeLuca accountants.
Not by people who owed his mother favors.
The law firm hired an outside forensic team to review Vesta Family Services, the trust communications, adoption-related payments, and hospital access.
Vivienne’s lawyer objected immediately.
Roman answered through counsel:
“My mother can object in court.”
No private threats.
No back-room visit.
No man in Roman’s organization was permitted to contact a witness.
His criminal attorney insisted on that too.
Roman’s reputation meant any unexplained pressure could contaminate the case and create new charges.
Then National Harbor Trust Company froze all discretionary changes to Bianca’s branch pending review.
Bianca still received ordinary trust distributions.
Nobody starved her.
Nobody seized her home.
The nine-percent governance question simply stopped moving.
The audit found Vivienne had paid the adoption agency herself.
$18,400.
Home study.
Counseling.
Document preparation.
Background checks.
Again, not inherently criminal.
Families paid adoption expenses all the time.
The problem was what she told the agency.
One payment memo read:
Identified placement — third DeLuca newborn.
Another invoice covered expedited legal review.
Reason:
Family governance timing.
The adoption attorney had questioned that phrase.
Vivienne answered:
Grandmother’s estate planning. Not relevant to placement.
It was extremely relevant.
Then investigators examined the hospital label request.
Vivienne had logged into the family-concierge portal six days after delivery and requested duplicate patient stickers for all three newborns.
Reason entered:
Baby-book keepsakes.
The portal produced six small barcode labels.
Two per infant.
She printed them at home.
Owen felt physically sick when he learned that.
His practice had recommended the concierge program.
“I gave her the door.”
Roman answered:
“You gave her an administrative login.”
“I should have known identity labels were available.”
“Yes.”
Owen looked at him.
Roman did not soften the answer.
Then:
“But you reported it the second you saw the mismatch.”
Owen nodded.
The hospital disabled the feature system-wide.
No family concierge account could ever print patient-identity labels again.
Then police searched Vivienne’s home office under warrant.
They found four unused labels.
One from Serafina.
One from Nicolas.
Two from Gabriel.
They also found an envelope marked:
POST-BIRTH
Inside:
A draft surrender form.
An intrafamily adoption petition.
A proposed temporary caregiving agreement.
And an unsigned letter from Roman supposedly stating:
Given the extraordinary demands of four children, Elena and I support Bianca assuming permanent parental responsibility for Gabriel.
Roman had four children only after the triplets were born.
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Yet document metadata showed the letter was created six weeks before delivery.
Vivienne had already decided which child Roman was going to surrender before she knew whether the triplets would survive birth.
