Chapter 14
Preston received one final opportunity through counsel to provide a truthful account of the financial guarantees and the road incident.
He refused.
His position remained that Elena exaggerated the crash, Victoria manipulated evidence, and Dante was retaliating after the engagement collapsed.
Victoria was offered no promise of immunity.
She cooperated anyway.
That choice cost her.
Her own financial conduct came under scrutiny.
Her deleted records were documented.
Her role in concealing the pregnancy remained part of the wider case.
Dante made one final decision too.
His business attorneys suggested separating the financial evidence from the personal events as much as possible to protect the Caradonna companies.
The strategy was legal.
It was also familiar.
Protect the name first.
Dante rejected it.
“Give investigators what they request.”
Martin stared at him.
“That could cost us contracts.”
“It already has.”
“More contracts.”
Dante understood.
“Then we rebuild.”
For years, he had treated reputation as something worth protecting at almost any price.
Elena and his son had nearly become that price.
He was finished paying it.
At the final pre-indictment interview, Preston saw Victoria’s messages among the evidence.
He looked at his sister.
“You gave them your phone?”
“Yes.”
“You chose him over me.”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
Her voice was quiet.
“I finally stopped choosing you over everyone else.”
Preston looked toward Dante.
Dante did not smile.
There was no victory in watching a family break apart.
Only consequence.
Rachel slid Dante’s own statement across the table.
It included his account of punching Preston and striking Victoria.
Dante signed it.
Preston stared at him.
“You’re really giving them that too?”
“Yes.”
“You think that makes you noble?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Dante looked at the man he had trusted for fifteen years.
“Because I’m done deciding which truth people are allowed to see.”
May you like
He signed the final page.
Once Rachel transmitted the documents, none of them could put the family version of events back together again.
