Chapter 8
The investigation created immediate damage.
The SUV was impounded for examination.
Talia’s attorneys demanded access to company servers.
Carmela hired separate counsel and refused another private conversation with Paolo.
Banks reviewing the questionable payments temporarily restricted several Ventresca accounts.
A real-estate lender postponed closing on a major project.
Steven estimated the delay could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Paolo accepted it.
Elise did not praise him.
She was more concerned with Ava’s six-week pediatric appointment.
That forced Paolo to live in two worlds.
At nine in the morning, he was explaining suspicious transfers to attorneys.
At eleven, he was sitting in a pediatrician’s waiting room holding a diaper bag.
Elise watched him struggle with a bottle warmer.
“You’ve never used that?”
“No.”
“You have six employees at the estate and somehow none of them taught you?”
Paolo looked at her.
“I’m learning.”
“Good.”
The ordinary embarrassment helped.
Then the investigator called.
The SUV examination found evidence that a critical vehicle system had been deliberately interfered with.
No one would tell Paolo more over the phone.
They needed to establish who had access and whether the defect could have occurred during legitimate maintenance.
The next question was Gavin Price.
Investigators located him in New Jersey.
He denied sabotaging anything.
He admitted Carmela paid his wife’s company.
“For consulting.”
“What consulting?” Paolo asked later.
Daniel shook his head.
“He won’t say.”
Without Gavin’s cooperation, the financial trail was suspicious but incomplete.
Then Talia made her first public move.
Through her attorney, she claimed Paolo was using a family dispute to frame her because he wanted complete control of Ventresca Holdings.
She also threatened to expose years of questionable company practices if he continued.
The warning was designed to frighten him back into private negotiation.
It almost worked.
Not because Paolo feared scandal.
Because some employees who had nothing to do with the family conflict could be hurt.
Elise understood the hesitation.
“If you stop now, what happens?”
Paolo looked at Ava sleeping against her shoulder.
“My mother gets what she wants.”
“No.”
Elise shook her head.
“You teach them they only have to threaten enough innocent people.”
Paolo stared at his wife.
Six weeks postpartum, exhausted, betrayed, and still she saw the problem more clearly than he did.
May you like
He called Daniel.
“Keep going.”
