Chapter 5 - The Man Who Made Maya Lie on Camera
Peter Sloan survived.
That fact irritated several people.
Maya could tell from the way questions were asked around his hospital room.
Federal agents wanted to know who paid him.
Miriam wanted to know exactly how many pieces of evidence he altered.
Dominic wanted to know who had driven a truck into Sloan’s car.
Sloan wanted pain medication.
Maya wanted one answer.
“Why me?”
Sloan looked at her through a swollen eye.
“You were easy.”
Dominic moved.
Maya held up a hand.
“No. Let him explain.”
Sloan swallowed.
“You post photos. Charity events. Family things. Your sister posts more. The hotel had footage. The estate had footage. Mrs. Russo had years of voice messages.”
Maya felt exposed in a way cameras had never made her feel.
“You trained models on me.”
Sloan looked away.
“Yes.”
“You made me say things I never said.”
“Yes.”
“You made photographs of me leaving Ava alone.”
“Composites.”
Maya stared.
“You say that like it makes them less evil.”
“I’m telling you technically what they were.”
Dominic stepped closer to the bed.
“Technically, answer the question she asked.”
Sloan’s eyes moved to him.
“Your mother wanted leverage.”
“Against Maya?”
“At first.”
Maya heard the phrase.
“At first?”
Sloan closed his eyes.
“I need a deal.”
The federal agent by the door said, “Your lawyer is arranging one.”
Sloan looked at Dominic.
“No retaliation.”
Dominic’s expression did not change.
The agent said, “Mr. Russo has agreed to no contact.”
Sloan gave a weak laugh.
“That’s not the same.”
Dominic replied, “It is today.”
The answer seemed to surprise him.
Sloan continued.
“Evelyn wanted Maya discredited before the port indictment. She said the family could survive Dominic’s legal problem if she controlled the trust.”
Maya asked, “What changed?”
“Vane found the letter.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“My father’s letter.”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
“I never saw all of it.”
“What did you see?”
“Enough.”
Sloan looked toward the window.
“Carlo Russo knew the port contracts could implicate you. He wrote that if you were ever indicted, Evelyn should use the trust to keep the businesses together.”
Dominic nodded slowly.
“That matches what she told us.”
Sloan looked back.
“There was another page.”
Everyone became still.
“What page?” Maya asked.
“Carlo said if you had a child, the family should never let the mother take that child outside Russo control.”
Maya’s stomach turned.
Dominic’s voice became very quiet.
“Why?”
“Because he believed wives leave. He wrote about your mother.”
Dominic flinched.
Maya knew only fragments of that history.
Dominic’s mother had tried to leave Carlo Russo when Dominic was nine.
She returned after three weeks.
Nobody in the family discussed why.
Sloan continued.
“Evelyn treated the letter like instructions.”
Dominic looked toward the floor.
“No.”
Maya understood his objection.
A dead man’s cruelty did not force a living person’s choices.
Sloan seemed to understand too.
“She called it your father’s will.”
“It was a letter.”
“She called it sacred.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“My father thought grocery lists were sacred if he wrote them.”
Maya asked, “Where is the letter?”
Sloan hesitated.
“Evelyn gave it to Vane.”
“Vane says he doesn’t have it.”
“He did.”
“When?”
“The night of the storm.”
That changed everything.
Vane had left Bellaforte with the letter.
Then been arrested days later.
Somewhere between those events, the document disappeared.
The federal agent made a note.
Dominic asked, “Who ran you off the road?”
Sloan’s breathing changed.
“I don’t know.”
“You saw nothing?”
“A black pickup.”
“Plate?”
“No.”
Sloan looked at Maya.
“But I know why.”
He reached toward the bedside drawer.
The agent opened it for him.
Inside was a small flash drive.
Sloan held it out.
“I copied everything.”
Maya did not take it.
The agent did.
“Insurance?” she asked.
Sloan nodded.
“Against Evelyn?”
“Against everybody.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“What does ‘everybody’ mean?”
Sloan looked directly at him.
“Your mother wasn’t the only person paying me.”
The drive contained years.
Not just Maya.
Judges.
Union officials.
Businessmen.
A city inspector.
A rival crime family.
Fabricated audio and edited video had become a quiet industry.
Truth customized for whoever could pay.
Miriam watched one file and removed her glasses.
“This is going to detonate half the city.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
One folder bore his name.
Inside were three fabricated recordings designed to make it appear he had ordered violence.
He listened to twenty seconds.
“That’s my voice.”
Sloan said, “Mostly.”
Maya looked at him.
“You were going to be indicted using fake evidence.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Maybe. There is real evidence too.”
Maya appreciated the distinction.
He was not reaching for innocence because one piece was false.
A federal prosecutor named Jordan Lee arrived that evening.
She offered Dominic something he had never expected.
Cooperation.
“If you help authenticate which transactions and meetings were real, we can separate genuine conduct from manufactured evidence.”
Dominic leaned back.
“And then?”
“If genuine conduct supports charges, we charge it.”
Maya watched him.
There it was.
The old world would have told Dominic to say nothing.
Protect the name.
Protect the empire.
Protect himself.
Dominic asked, “Does my cooperation protect Maya and Ava from being dragged into this?”
Lee answered carefully.
“It protects no one from lawful evidence. But it allows us to stop treating fabricated material as fact.”
Dominic nodded.
“Then I cooperate.”
Marco looked stunned.
Maya was too.
After the prosecutor left, she asked, “Do you understand what you just agreed to?”
“Yes.”
“You could lose everything.”
Dominic looked toward Ava, asleep in a hospital stroller after a long day of adults making terrible decisions around her.
“No.”
Maya followed his eyes.
He continued.
“I could lose a lot.”
That night another surprise came.
Nina, the housekeeper who had appeared at the side door during the storm, called Maya.
“I need to see you.”
Maya asked, “About what?”
Nina’s voice trembled.
“The night Mrs. Russo put Ava in the bin.”
Maya sat up.
May you like
“What did you see?”
“More than you did.”
