Chapter 2
The emergency-room doctor documented fresh bruising on Sylvia’s shoulders and older bruising along her upper arm.
The fracture beneath her sling was eight days old.
Sylvia had originally told doctors she slipped on wet tile.
Now she changed the history.
Trent had shoved her during an argument in their Gold Coast condo.
She hit the edge of a kitchen island.
“He apologized afterward,” she told Caroline.
Alessio stood near the hospital window.
He did not trust himself to speak.
Sylvia continued.
“Then he spent three days explaining why it happened.”
Caroline nodded slowly.
“That’s different from apologizing.”
Sylvia looked down.
Her marriage to Trent was three years old.
At first, he had seemed protective without being controlling.
He understood the Moretti world. He knew how to move through Alessio’s private club without trying to impress anyone. He treated Sylvia as if being twenty-two did not make her a child.
Over time, protection became accounting for where she went.
Concern became checking her phone.
Arguments became doors blocked from the inside.
Alessio had noticed pieces.
He had told himself Sylvia was an adult.
He had told himself interfering would insult her.
Now he understood how convenient that had been.
“What did you find?” he asked.
Sylvia unlocked the phone.
Her family trust owned eighteen percent of Moretti Hospitality Group, including the private club and several restaurants.
Trent managed security contracting for multiple Moretti properties.
Raymond owned the largest outside vendor.
Sylvia had discovered invoices for guards who apparently worked shifts that never happened.
Vehicles billed to two properties simultaneously.
Overtime that exceeded twenty-four hours in a day.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Months?”
Sylvia looked at Caroline.
“Years.”
Alessio’s jaw tightened.
Caroline began forwarding copies to a secure account.
Then she stopped on one email.
“What’s this?”
Sylvia’s face changed.
It was an approval for an emergency payment to Raymond’s company eighteen months earlier.
Authorized from Sylvia’s account.
Alessio looked at his sister.
“You approved this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She did not answer immediately.
Then she said, “Because this didn’t start with Trent stealing from us.”
May you like
She looked ashamed.
“It started with me helping him.”
