Chapter 9
The investigation slowed.
That frustrated Dante more than open resistance.
The mechanic remembered repairing the Suburban.
He did not remember who drove it.
Security records showed Preston checked the vehicle out, but not who had possession hours later.
No camera clearly captured the collision.
No witness could identify the driver.
Preston’s attorney called the entire theory retaliation by a jealous former lover’s wealthy father.
Elena became the easiest target.
Online comments called her opportunistic.
Victoria’s friends quietly suggested she had appeared at the engagement reception intentionally to create scandal.
The planetarium kept Elena on leave.
Not because management believed the accusations.
Because every public event now attracted cameras.
At home, Dante’s older sister, Maria Caradonna, finally confronted him.
“You want to know why people believe the worst version?”
Dante looked at her.
“Because we spent thirty years making the family impossible to question.”
Maria was fifty-seven and had no patience left for Caradonna mythology.
“Preston didn’t invent that system.”
Dante said nothing.
“You did.”
He accepted that.
Then Martin called.
Another financial document had surfaced.
A private bridge loan taken by Preston eighteen months earlier.
Collateral included his expected management interest in the Sloan-Caradonna hotel project.
If the wedding failed, the lender could demand repayment.
If Dante’s estate plan was reopened before the wedding, Preston’s unauthorized guarantees would almost certainly be discovered.
The pregnancy threatened both.
Rachel laid out the timeline.
Elena learned she was pregnant.
Preston intercepted her letter.
Victoria learned.
Calls were diverted.
Pressure increased.
Then Elena refused to leave.
Then the road incident.
Then Preston told Victoria Elena was “gone.”
Then Elena appeared alive at the engagement reception.
Then Preston said:
Why is she still alive?
The sentence finally had a financial motive behind it.
But motive still was not proof.
The missing GPS data became more important than ever.
Frank Deluca, the security director, reviewed the company server again.
The GPS file had not been corrupted.
It had been deleted manually.
Using an administrator account.
Not Preston’s.
Dante looked at him.
“Whose?”
Frank hesitated.
“Victoria’s.”
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The investigation had spent weeks assuming Victoria knew less than Preston.
That assumption had just become impossible.
