Chapter 9
The transaction after Gabriella’s death was for $32,000.
Official purpose:
Emergency relocation for a beneficiary identified as T.L.
No such beneficiary existed.
The address belonged to an empty office suite.
The money flowed through North Bridge, then into three vendor accounts.
One eventually reached Marina’s event company.
Another paid a debt connected to Edmund.
The third remained unresolved.
Marina’s attorney stopped arguing that every payment was legitimate.
Now the defense became narrower.
Marina admitted using shared foundation credentials after Gabriella died because operations were chaotic.
She denied creating fake beneficiaries.
Edmund admitted allowing staff to continue using Gabriella’s account temporarily because changing authority during probate was difficult.
Rebecca stared at him during the interview.
“You used a dead woman’s credentials.”
“To keep the foundation functioning.”
“For a fake beneficiary.”
“I did not know it was fake.”
“Who gave you the paperwork?”
Edmund refused to say.
Salvatore already knew the likely answer.
But Part 10 needed more than likelihood.
The auditors obtained backups from the foundation’s document system.
Deleted drafts remained recoverable.
One folder contained versions of a board-risk memorandum prepared during Gabriella’s illness.
The final version never reached the board.
The drafts did.
They described “potential unauthorized activity by the treasurer.”
Treasurer:
Gabriella Mancini.
The memorandum claimed Gabriella’s illness had led to weak controls, questionable disbursements, and possible self-directed approvals.
Salvatore read the drafts.
“Who wrote this?”
Metadata identified Marina.
Marina’s attorney argued she had been documenting risks.
Then Daniel found comments inside an earlier version.
One from Edmund:
Too aggressive. Remove personal misconduct language unless we have to use it.
Another from Marina:
If audit starts after she’s gone, the transaction history speaks for itself.
Nobody spoke.
There it was.
Not proof of the entire plan.
But enough to make Rebecca sit very still.
Salvatore looked at Gabriella’s blue ledger.
The official books were already full of suspicious transactions.
If the fraudsters only wanted money, the handwritten ledger was dangerous because it tracked discrepancies.
But that did not explain the violence in the study.
Official records already existed.
Bank records already existed.
Vendor records existed.
Why was one handwritten book worth striking a child to recover?
Daniel answered without meaning to.
“The official records make Gabriella look involved.”
Salvatore looked at him.
Daniel pointed at the ledger.
“This book may be the only contemporaneous record showing she knew that.”
The room went silent.
That was the edge of the major twist.
May you like
The fraud was not merely hidden around Gabriella.
It had been arranged so that when discovered, it would point toward her.
