Chapter 7
Sofia did not react the way Raffaele expected.
She did not deny that her credentials had been used.
She looked at the revision history and said:
“That’s why Delia kept asking me to sign into the event tablet.”
Raffaele stared at her.
They were sitting in her sister Emily’s Lincoln Park-style apartment equivalent? Wait Manhattan. Need NYC. Let's set Upper West Side? Sofia's sister in Astoria Queens maybe. Better. She is at sister Emily's Astoria apartment. We'll continue.
The event tablet lived in the penthouse kitchen office.
After several events, Delia had asked Sofia to log in because Delia claimed she had forgotten her password.
Once Sofia unlocked it, she returned to the kitchen.
“You gave her access?”
“I gave your sister an unlocked tablet.”
Raffaele rubbed his jaw.
Claire asked:
“Did you watch what she did?”
“No.”
That did not prove Delia made the changes.
It only made it possible.
Sofia looked toward Raffaele.
“I know how that sounds.”
“So do I.”
She stiffened.
He immediately regretted the tone.
“I mean we need something stronger.”
Sofia relaxed slightly.
That was new.
A week earlier, Raffaele would have treated suspicion as betrayal.
Now he was learning the difference between trusting someone and refusing to examine evidence.
Evelyn found another pattern.
Every disputed schedule revision occurred between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Building service records showed Sofia had usually left the kitchen area by then with Lily or gone upstairs.
Delia remained downstairs.
Marcus often returned after guests left.
Samuel confirmed it.
“He always said he was closing the books.”
Marcus had never closed any other books personally.
Then an event administrator named Claire Benton—not attorney Claire—admitted something uncomfortable.
She had once seen Delia alter a completed staff sheet.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“She told me Mrs. Montoro had entered the numbers wrong.”
Sofia laughed once.
Without humor.
“She always made the mistake mine.”
That was the pattern.
Sofia’s restaurant background explained why she was in the kitchen.
Her login explained revised records.
Her willingness to help explained understaffing.
Her age explained why relatives dismissed conflict as immaturity.
Delia had not invented facts.
She had arranged real facts so they pointed toward Sofia.
Raffaele understood why his wife had wanted documentation before coming to him.
If she had accused Delia three months earlier, Delia already had an answer prepared.
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The question was no longer whether the staffing fraud existed.
It was whether the humiliation of Sofia had been part of hiding it.
