Chapter 4
The foundation audit began that afternoon.
Rocco expected to find a few missing cash envelopes.
Instead, the accountants found inconsistencies going back eighteen months.
Scholarship donations were received correctly.
Deposits did not always match.
Some youth-equipment reimbursements were unusually high.
Several payments had been approved using Ralph’s electronic credentials even though Ralph claimed he had retired from daily foundation work.
Rocco showed him the first report.
“You approved these?”
Ralph adjusted his glasses.
“I might have.”
“There are forty-seven.”
“I signed plenty of things.”
“Last month?”
Ralph looked up.
He had spent most of last month at a cardiac rehabilitation program in Arizona.
Several approvals occurred during that period.
Rocco asked:
“Who has your credentials?”
Ralph's face tightened.
“No one.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Then either you approved expenses from Arizona or someone used your account.”
Ralph immediately became defensive.
“This is ridiculous.”
Bernice sat across the room saying nothing.
Rocco noticed.
That evening the accountants traced one reimbursement.
A youth-equipment vendor had supposedly supplied $34,000 worth of skates and helmets.
The company existed.
The invoice was fake.
The vendor confirmed no such order.
Payment had gone to a different bank account after routing through a payment processor.
The account belonged to a small hospitality company.
Its owner:
Laine Caruso.
Rocco stared at his sister’s name.
Laine had opened the company two years earlier for a restaurant project that failed before launch.
He called her.
“You received foundation money.”
“That isn't what happened.”
“Then explain.”
“Dad was helping me.”
Rocco looked toward Ralph.
His father looked genuinely confused.
“Helping you with what?”
Laine stopped.
Rocco heard it.
She had expected Ralph to know.
Ralph looked at Bernice.
That same look from the arena.
Rocco turned toward his mother.
“Mom?”
Bernice remained calm.
“Your father forgets what he approves.”
Ralph’s head snapped toward her.
“I do not.”
Bernice did not look at him.
Rocco felt the family story shift.
May you like
For the first time, his father looked less like the architect of the theft—
and more like someone who might have been used too.
