Chapter 5
Harlan asked Odessa’s therapist to explain the phrase:
unwanted children.
Odessa did not invent it that morning.
Verena had used variations before.
“When Dad travels, she says I have to stop acting like the house is mine.”
“What does that mean?”
“She says Milo and her are the real family now.”
“Does she say Dad thinks that?”
Odessa hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
Harlan felt sick when he heard.
Then:
“She says Mommy left me a building because she felt guilty.”
Caroline had done no such thing.
“She says if I’m bad, she can sell it and put the money where good kids use it.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
The threats were financial language aimed at a child too young to understand it.
That made them easier to dismiss.
Then Milo spoke separately.
He confirmed Verena resented Reed House.
“She says Odessa gets everything because her mom died.”
“Did she say the building belongs to Odessa?”
“Yes.”
“Did she say she wanted to sell it?”
“She said then things would finally be fair.”
Fair.
That word appeared again in Verena’s texts with her sister.
Harlan spends half his life maintaining Caroline’s shrine while my son gets whatever is left.
Another:
Odessa has a two-million-dollar building and Milo has nothing comparable. Tell me how that is fair.
Her sister replied:
Because it came from Odessa’s mother.
Verena:
And Harlan is raising both children.
The resentment was coherent.
It was also wrong.
Milo did not become entitled to property owned by Odessa merely because the children shared a household.
Then investigators found a more practical pressure.
Milo’s biological father had stopped paying private-school tuition after losing his job.
Annual tuition:
$31,000.
Verena wanted Milo to stay.
Harlan had offered to pay one year personally while the adults reassessed.
Verena refused.
She said accepting Harlan’s money would make Milo “dependent.”
Yet she had been taking Odessa’s food.
And moving Odessa’s trust reserve.
Why?
Because, in Verena’s mind, using family resources to equalize the children felt different from accepting charity for Milo.
That psychological distinction made little sense legally.
It mattered emotionally.
Then Northline’s frozen account showed another scheduled payment.
Thirty-eight thousand dollars.
Recipient:
Milo’s school.
It had not executed because police froze the account.
Harlan stared.
So part of Odessa’s reserve was about to pay Milo’s tuition.
That looked like the motive.
But Denise was not satisfied.
“One hundred eighty-four thousand to solve thirty-eight thousand?”
Harlan nodded slowly.
“And the design retainer.”
“Twelve-five.”
“Still nowhere close.”
Most of the money remained untouched.
May you like
Meaning Verena had not simply emptied the account because she needed cash.
The missing liquidity itself may have been the product.
