Chapter 5
Marcella’s motive was not only hatred.
Hatred made the slap possible.
Money made the plan useful.
Natalia had inherited a separate fortune from her own family.
Not Mafia money.
Clean money.
Old manufacturing assets.
A pediatric legal-aid foundation.
A trust created for Lulu.
Dominic could use trust funds for Lulu’s care only through documented reimbursement.
Marcella could not touch them.
That changed if Dominic lost custody and a court appointed a temporary guardian.
A guardian could request controlled distributions for housing, education, security, therapy, and support.
Marcella had been trying to position herself as the “stable female relative” who could step in if Dominic became legally compromised.
Natalia’s actual packet destroyed that possibility.
So Marcella altered the story.
She told Dominic fragments.
“Natalia chose someone.”
“Natalia did not trust your house.”
“Natalia wrote things you would hate.”
She let him imagine a lover.
A betrayal.
A secret family.
Anything except the truth:
Natalia feared Dominic’s world, but she also feared Marcella.
The birthday party was Marcella’s chance to solve several problems at once.
Humiliate Lulu.
Provoke Dominic.
Create photographic evidence.
Use Natalia’s hidden safety packet as a weapon.
Then petition for emergency guardianship before Grace could fully intervene.
The line “she stole my life” now made sense.
Marcella believed she should have been the woman of the Carvelli mansion after Luca died.
Natalia took that role.
Then Lulu inherited Natalia’s clean trust and Dominic’s devotion.
To Marcella, a seven-year-old had become the living reason she did not control the house, the money, or the family image.
May you like
That was not madness.
It was entitlement given a gown and a seating chart.
