Chapter 6
Rosanna changed her defense.
She stopped claiming there was no connection between relief payments and family politics.
Instead, she argued that influence was unavoidable.
“If somebody saves your wife’s life, you remember it.”
Carmine sat across from her in Claire’s conference room.
“That isn’t the same as reminding him before a vote.”
“I reminded people who supported them.”
“You wrote Raymond a note.”
“I wrote hundreds of notes.”
“Not all of them mentioned council business.”
Rosanna leaned back.
“You are pretending family loyalty exists in a vacuum.”
“No.”
Carmine’s voice remained quiet.
“I’m trying to understand whether you turned a charity into a voting machine.”
Her eyes flashed.
“Charity.”
She almost spat the word.
“This family was built because people took care of one another when banks, hospitals, governments, and employers did not care whether we lived.”
“That does not make sick children political currency.”
“I never denied anyone essential care because of a vote.”
Carmine noticed the wording.
Essential.
Claire did too.
“What about nonessential assistance?” Claire asked.
Rosanna glared at her.
The forensic team soon found the answer.
Base benefits were generally consistent.
Emergency medical bills.
Funerals.
Minimum housing assistance.
But discretionary extensions varied dramatically.
One family received three additional years of mortgage support.
Another received private-school tuition.
A third received legal fees beyond the trust’s stated cap.
Those extensions clustered around people Rosanna needed politically.
Carmine felt the story forming.
Still, a problem remained.
The original questionable payments began before Rosanna became the sole administrator.
Vittorio had approved some himself.
Steven showed him six files carrying Vittorio’s signature.
“Your father knew.”
Carmine stared at them.
“Or his signature was used.”
“We’ll verify.”
The signatures proved authentic.
That complicated the moral picture again.
Vittorio had participated in at least some politically sensitive relief decisions.
Maybe Rosanna had inherited a system rather than corrupted it.
Carmine went home angry at a dead man.
That was inconvenient.
Elliot was sitting on the nursery floor when he arrived.
The restored bear had not yet returned.
In its place, the boy had arranged three newer stuffed animals in a row.
“Which one is Grandpa Bear?” Carmine asked.
“None.”
“Why?”
“Bear is Bear.”
Carmine sat beside him.
Children were irritatingly precise sometimes.
He thought about Rosanna insisting everything she did was simply how family had always worked.
Maybe that was true.
Maybe the system had been wrong before she ever touched it.
May you like
The question was no longer whether Rosanna invented the problem.
It was what she had chosen to do once she inherited it.
