Chapter 5
The document was found in Trent’s briefcase.
A voting proxy.
Sylvia’s eighteen-percent trust interest would have been temporarily assigned to Trent for an upcoming Moretti Hospitality board vote.
The proxy lasted ninety days.
Long enough to approve a new five-year security contract with Raymond’s company.
Alessio read it twice.
“You were supposed to sign this upstairs?”
Sylvia nodded.
“When did Trent give it to you?”
“At dinner.”
“And you refused.”
“Yes.”
“What happened next?”
“He told me we’d discuss it privately.”
They went upstairs.
Trent demanded her signature.
Sylvia refused again.
Then he asked for her phone.
When she refused that too, he blocked the corridor.
She locked herself in the marble bathroom.
That was where the video began.
Caroline examined the proxy.
“Without Sylvia’s vote, does Raymond’s contract pass?”
“No,” Alessio said.
Two directors had already raised concerns over rising security costs.
Sylvia’s vote could break the deadlock.
The financial motive had become concrete.
But Alessio still did not understand why his sister had remained quiet for so long.
Sylvia finally answered.
“The first payment.”
“What about it?”
“I didn’t just approve it because Trent asked.”
She looked at Caroline.
Then at Alessio.
“I suggested it.”
Alessio stared at her.
Raymond’s company had been facing a short-term cash crisis after losing a municipal contract.
Sylvia had believed dozens of employees could miss payroll.
She suggested Moretti Hospitality prepay several months of legitimate security work.
No theft.
But no board authorization either.
Trent praised her for solving the problem.
Raymond repaid the amount through services.
Then, months later, Trent asked for another advance.
And another.
When Sylvia objected, he reminded her that she had created the arrangement.
“He said if you found out, you’d think I was incompetent.”
Alessio’s voice hardened.
“You thought I’d care more about an unauthorized payment than my sister asking for help?”
Sylvia looked at him.
“Yes.”
That answer stopped him.
Because she did not say it to hurt him.
She believed it.
May you like
Then she added something worse.
“And Trent knew I believed it too.”
