Chapter 5
Gregory stopped cooperating voluntarily after the altered email surfaced.
His lawyer said all future communication would be formal.
Claire preferred that.
“People say fewer stupid things once lawyers arrive.”
Raffaele looked at her.
“Usually.”
“Present company excluded.”
The forensic review moved from wedding expenses to Hale Event Management.
Sophia had not originally intended to audit the company.
Now she did.
Not personally.
Her pregnancy and her role as an interested party made that unwise.
An independent accounting firm took over.
The first discovery was not embezzlement.
It was failure.
Hale Event Management had lost two major corporate contracts during the previous year.
A planned hotel-events expansion had gone badly.
The company owed vendors.
A bank had declined additional credit.
Gregory had personally guaranteed portions of several debts.
Raffaele read the summary.
“Why didn’t he come to me?”
Sophia answered.
“Because he knew you would ask to see the books.”
That sounded like Gregory.
Proud.
Polished.
Always presenting success.
Raffaele had trusted him precisely because he rarely asked for help.
Now that trait looked less admirable.
Wedding money had temporarily relieved pressure.
Vendor companies connected to Hale Event Management received large deposits.
Some then used portions of those funds to satisfy older obligations unrelated to the Carbone wedding.
The accountants were careful.
They did not call it theft yet.
Contracts mattered.
Intent mattered.
Disclosure mattered.
But the money flow created a clear reason Gregory needed wedding expenses approved quickly.
Sophia had become the obstacle.
Claire asked:
“Why not simply tell Bianca the company was struggling?”
Raffaele looked toward the wedding photographs on the planning board.
“Pride.”
Sophia disagreed.
“More than that.”
They looked at her.
“Bianca built this wedding around Gregory being successful.”
Sophia had attended engagement dinners with them.
Bianca talked constantly about Gregory’s projects.
His clients.
His growth.
The life they would have afterward.
Gregory had sold her a future attached to a business that was already failing.
“If she knew?” Claire asked.
Sophia shrugged.
“Maybe she stayed. Maybe she left. But Gregory didn’t want to find out.”
Another piece arrived from the planner.
Gregory had insisted that every vendor dispute involving Sophia go through him.
When Bianca once asked for Sophia’s number so they could “clear the air,” Gregory discouraged it.
Don’t give her another opportunity to talk down to you.
Three weeks later, he told Sophia:
Bianca asked that you stop contacting her directly.
Sophia had never contacted her.
Two women kept apart.
Each believing the other demanded it.
May you like
Gregory did not merely lie about money.
He was controlling the relationship around the money.
