Chapter 4 - Lauren's Real Reason
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Samuel Greene arrived at the house at nine the next morning with a detective from the NYPD financial crimes unit and a folder thick enough to change several lives.
The neurologist Greene had promised came at noon and spent two hours alone with Rose while Matteo paced the hallway outside the door.
When the doctor emerged he removed his glasses and spoke to Matteo with plain and careful respect.
"Your mother has mild age related forgetfulness, Mr. Russo, but she is fully competent to manage her affairs and to testify about what was done to her."
Matteo closed his eyes and let out a breath I had never heard from him before.
That single medical report destroyed the story Lauren and Anthony had been building for almost a year about a confused old woman who needed to be removed for her own good.
He froze the house transfer before it could be recorded and he filed an emergency notice with Rose's bank stating that she was alive and under legal protection.
He also canceled the admission to the memory care facility in Pennsylvania that Rose had never requested and never understood.
Anthony remained under guard in the guest wing but Lauren was brought to the study that afternoon because the detective wanted to hear her version before any arrests were made.
Matteo did not offer her a seat.
"Tell me how you met Victor Kane."
Lauren lifted her chin.
"I have never met Victor Kane."
Greene opened his folder and slid a photograph across the desk.
It showed Lauren at a restaurant in Tribeca three months earlier shaking hands with a silver haired man while her father stood beside her smiling.
Greene identified them calmly as her father Frank Bennett and Victor Kane, who owned Kane Credit and half the private lending clubs in this city.
The detective said Frank had consulted for Kane for six years and Kane had paid for Lauren's Park Avenue apartment when her own card was declined.
Lauren stared at the photo and her perfect composure cracked for the first time since I had known her.
"My father introduced us at a business dinner and that does not prove anything."
The detective leaned forward.
Matteo's face went hard.
"You told me you bought that apartment with your own savings."
Lauren laughed once without any warmth.
"My father told me the Russos owed Kane money through Anthony and that a marriage between our families would settle everything peacefully."
Greene then slid an email chain between Frank Bennett and Anthony across the desk for Matteo to read.
I could read the largest line upside down from where I stood beside Rose's chair.
"If Lauren becomes trustee, Kane gets a board seat and a path to buy the controlling block within eighteen months."
Lauren did not look at her.
"How much were you promised?"
Lauren hesitated.
Daniel brought Anthony into the study at that moment so he could hear every word she was about to say.
She turned on him with sudden hatred.
"You promised me your mother would be in Pennsylvania and your brother would be so grateful to marry me that he would never ask a single question."
Anthony sneered at her.
"You were happy to wear the ring, darling."
"I was happy to be paid."
The words fell into the room like broken glass.
Greene asked the question quietly.
"How much, Miss Bennett?"
"Two million dollars after the wedding and the trustee seat itself, which Kane said would be worth far more in fees and influence over time."
"My father said it was my chance to stop being decorative and finally hold real power in this city."
Matteo looked at her as if he was seeing a stranger who had slept in his house and eaten at his mother's table.
"Did you ever care about me at all?"
"I cared about the life you offered and I told myself that was close enough to love for women like me."
Rose shook her head slowly.
Lauren's eyes flashed.
"You had everything handed to you because you married a Russo and I was tired of watching old money decide who matters."
Matteo stepped back from her.
"You stole my mother's diamond."
Lauren's voice rose.
"No, Anthony stole it and Anthony told Henry Weiss to swap the stone because he needed an immediate payment for Kane's men who were threatening to break his legs."
"I only wore the band because Anthony said if you saw the ring on my hand at the dinner you would believe your mother had blessed our marriage."
Anthony lunged forward half a step before Daniel caught his arm.
"You begged me for that ring because you wanted those women at the table to envy you."
Lauren pointed at him with a shaking hand.
"You stole from your own mother and forged your brother's name and you want to talk about envy?"
Greene gathered the emails back into his folder.
"The district attorney will decide charges for fraud, grand larceny, forgery, and elder exploitation based on this investigation."
"Your cooperation will be noted, Miss Bennett, but it does not erase what you admitted here today."
Matteo finally spoke the words I knew Rose had been praying to hear since the night of the dinner.
"Lauren, the engagement is over."
She stared at him.
"You cannot just end it like I am an employee."
"I can and I have."
"There will be no wedding and you will never sit in my mother's seat and you will never wear another thing that belongs to this family."
He nodded to Daniel.
"Escort her from the house and make sure she takes nothing that she did not bring through that front door herself."
At the study door Lauren stopped and turned back to look directly at me.
Her smile was small and cold and meant only for me to understand.
"You think those little photographs made you important, Maggie?"
"Servants who forget their place tend to lose everything they were trying to protect."
Daniel stepped between us before Matteo could move.
"Keep walking, Miss Bennett."
She held my gaze for one more second and then let them lead her down the long hallway toward the front door.
Matteo turned to me after she was gone and his voice was rough with contained anger.
"From now on you do not walk to the staff entrance alone and you do not answer any call from an unknown number without telling Daniel first."
May you like
I nodded because my throat was too tight to speak.
Rose reached for my hand again and this time I understood her fear was no longer for herself.
