Chapter 7
The second layer of evidence came from schedules.
Not secret ledgers.
Not hidden cameras.
Ordinary employee timecards.
The auditors compared Walsh Security invoices with building-access records from five Moretti properties.
Dozens of billed shifts did not match.
Some guards were real employees who had worked elsewhere.
Others had left Raymond’s company months earlier.
The payments accelerated after Sylvia stopped authorizing advances voluntarily.
That detail mattered.
Trent had not simply continued the system she created.
He had converted it.
Helen Park, the club’s operations director, provided another piece.
She had questioned Trent about an invoice six months earlier.
“What did he say?” Caroline asked.
“That Sylvia approved it.”
“Did he show you?”
“No.”
“Why did you accept that?”
Helen looked toward Alessio.
“Because he was her husband.”
Then she added, “And because everybody here assumes people close to Mr. Grimaldi speak with his authority.”
Alessio heard the accusation without Helen making one.
That night, Sylvia finally agreed to see him privately.
They met in the hotel restaurant after closing.
He apologized.
Not for failing to read her mind.
For making fear of disappointing him part of the family’s operating system.
Sylvia listened.
“I should’ve told you anyway.”
“Yes.”
“I helped Trent the first time.”
“Yes.”
“You can stop agreeing so fast.”
A faint smile appeared.
The first since the bathroom.
Then she became serious.
“There’s something I haven’t told Caroline.”
Alessio waited.
“The night Trent broke my arm, he wasn’t angry about money.”
“What was he angry about?”
“I told him I was revoking every authorization he had through me.”
She had also told him she intended to vote against Raymond’s contract.
Trent shoved her during the argument.
Afterward, he apologized.
Then he spent a week trying to persuade her she had caused the fall by grabbing him first.
Sylvia had nearly believed him.
“What changed?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“What happened yesterday morning?”
“I scheduled an email to the board.”
Alessio leaned forward.
“What email?”
“A full disclosure.”
Sylvia looked at him.
“My part too.”
It was supposed to send immediately after the charity dinner.
May you like
Trent had discovered the draft.
Now Alessio finally understood why the phone mattered so much.
