Chapter 14 - THE MAN WHO SOLD EVERYONE OUT|
The investigators moved quickly to locate Richard Sloane.
His departure suggested that he knew the evidence was closing in, but they still needed to establish the full extent of his involvement. The financial records were complicated, spread across several companies and jurisdictions. Every accusation had to be supported by documents, testimony, or independently verified transactions.
Alessandro provided the records he possessed and authorized an independent audit of the family's legitimate businesses.
Some of his advisers objected.
“You're handing the authorities the keys to the entire operation,” one executive warned.
“I'm handing them the records they have a right to examine.”
“And if they find something that implicates your father?”
“Then we deal with it.”
The executive left, muttering that the Moretti name would never recover.
Alessandro did not respond.
For years, he had believed that loyalty meant protecting the family from embarrassment. Now he was beginning to understand that protecting the truth mattered more than preserving a reputation built on silence.
Elena watched these changes from the edge of the process. She had no desire to become part of a criminal investigation beyond what concerned her mother and sister. She wanted to return to ordinary life, finish her education, and stop waking at every sound outside the apartment.
Yet the case continued to pull her forward.
The investigators discovered that Richard had used Northbridge to route money from old family accounts. Some of those funds had paid Ryan for surveillance and intimidation. Other transfers were connected to shell companies created before Alessandro took control of the business.
A former accountant agreed to cooperate.
He told the authorities that Richard had ordered him to alter records after Elena's mother questioned suspicious invoices. He also confirmed that Thomas Vale had designed the original network.
But the accountant insisted that Richard had been working for someone else.
“Who?” the investigator asked.
“I never saw the person. Richard called him the chairman.”
Alessandro went still when he heard the word.
His father had used the same title for a private group of investors who helped finance the family's early businesses. Most had retired or died.
One remained unaccounted for.
Gabriel Moretti, Alessandro's uncle.
Gabriel had disappeared after a bitter dispute with Alessandro's father. The family believed he had left the country. No one had heard from him in nearly a decade.
Elena looked at Alessandro.
“Do you think your uncle is behind this?”
“I don't know what to think.”
“Then find out.”
He gave her a tired smile.
“You make that sound simple.”
“It isn't simple. But you can't spend your life protecting yourself from answers.”
That evening, the investigators obtained a warrant for Richard's financial records and located a vehicle registered to one of his shell companies. It had been used to transport documents from his office to a storage unit.
The unit contained boxes of invoices, contracts, and correspondence.
One envelope held a photograph of Elena's mother standing outside a hospital, several weeks before her death. On the back was a note in Richard's handwriting.
She has the copies. Find out where she put them.
The photograph was not proof of murder, but it was evidence of a sustained effort to locate the records.
The investigator called Elena with the update.
“Your mother's death is now part of a broader review. We are reopening the circumstances surrounding the accident.”
Elena closed her eyes.
For years, she had carried grief without knowing whether it contained unanswered questions.
Now she had to face the possibility that her mother's death had been more than a terrible accident.
Alessandro sat beside her.
“You don't have to go through every document yourself.”
“I know.”
“And you don't have to forgive anyone.”
“I know that too.”
She leaned against his shoulder, exhausted.
For a moment, he rested his hand over hers.
Then Marco entered with a new development.
Richard's attorney had contacted the police.
May you like
Richard was willing to surrender.
But he would only speak if Alessandro agreed to meet him alone.
