Chapter 6 - The Secret in the Old Study
Dominic brought Isabella to the safe house before dawn.
Emma cried when she saw her. She wrapped her arms around Isabella and whispered apologies for every day she had spent unable to find her.
“You did exactly what I asked,” Isabella told her. “You kept the truth safe.”
Pietro secured the building while Dominic studied the original trust documents.
Isabella explained that she had discovered three layers of fraud.
First, money had been diverted from the family trust through shell companies.
Second, legitimate property deeds had been replaced with forged copies, allowing Sterling Holdings to claim ownership.
Third, the stolen assets were being used to finance a criminal shipment through a network of companies that appeared to have no connection to the Morettis.
If the operation was exposed, Dominic's entire organization could be implicated.
“Marco designed the transfers,” Isabella said. “Charles provided the shell companies. But someone higher up was protecting them.”
“Who?”
She shook her head.
“I never found out.”
Dominic considered the possibilities.
His father had been dead for six years. Marco had managed much of the family's business since then, but there had always been an invisible hand guiding certain decisions.
Someone had known which officials could be bribed, which records could be altered, and which witnesses could be silenced.
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“Then we find the ledgers.”
They returned to the mansion through an underground service tunnel that Pietro had used to evacuate the staff.
The east wing was damaged, but the old study remained standing.
Dominic walked past the portrait of his grandfather.
He pressed the hidden latch behind the frame.
A small safe was embedded in the wall.
The combination was Isabella's birthday.
Inside lay three leather-bound ledgers, a packet of photographs, and a sealed envelope bearing the stamp of a federal investigator.
Dominic opened the envelope.
It contained copies of bank transfers, shipping manifests, and a handwritten note.
If the Moretti family wishes to avoid being used as a cover for this operation, cooperate with the investigation. The evidence must reach Special Agent Rebecca Lawson before the shipment leaves port.
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“You were working with federal investigators?”
“I contacted them after I discovered the weapons shipment. One agent promised to help me, but someone leaked our meeting. After that, I didn't know whom I could trust.”
Dominic opened the first ledger.
The entries were meticulous.
Every transfer had a date, an amount, and a company name. Several payments were marked with the initials R.V.
“Who is R.V.?” he asked.
Isabella stared at the page.
“I don't know. But every time I found those initials, a witness disappeared or a document was destroyed.”
Dominic photographed the pages.
“We'll get these to Lawson.”
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Dominic turned with his weapon raised.
A young man stood in the doorway.
He was pale, unshaven, and wearing a security uniform several sizes too large.
“Don't shoot,” the man said. “I'm not here to hurt you.”
Dominic recognized him.
Daniel Cross, a former accountant who had disappeared six months before Isabella's supposed death.
“You were declared missing,” Dominic said.
Daniel swallowed.
“Because Marco was going to kill me.”
“You worked on the trust accounts.”
“I found the transfers. I copied everything. Then Marco discovered what I'd done.”
“Why didn't you go to the police?”
“I tried. The first investigator I met was already working for them.”
Dominic lowered his weapon slightly.
“What do you know about R.V.?”
Daniel looked at the ledgers.
“Those initials belong to the man who approved every major transfer.”
“Name.”
Daniel's eyes filled with fear.
“Richard Vale.”
Dominic recognized the name immediately.
Richard Vale was a respected businessman who had advised Dominic's father and later served as a discreet financial consultant to the family. He had attended Dominic's wedding. He had sent flowers when Isabella disappeared.
He had even visited Dominic after the funeral.
Daniel continued.
“Vale wasn't just helping them move money. He arranged the fire, the false death records, and the shipment. Marco was his lieutenant. Charles was his money man.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Vale believes the Moretti family is too powerful to control. He wants your properties, your routes, and your connections. He wants you either under his control or in prison.”
Isabella closed the ledger.
“Then we expose him.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You can't. Vale has friends in the police, the courts, and city government. If you hand over the ledgers without protecting yourselves, he'll destroy the evidence and have you arrested.”
Dominic looked at Isabella.
For eighteen months, he had thought his wife was gone.
Now she was standing beside him, alive, with the truth in her hands.
May you like
He would not let anyone take her again.
“Then we make sure the evidence can't disappear.”
