Chapter 8
Raffaele separated the family finances from the charity within forty-eight hours.
Independent accountants took over all rally disbursements.
Grant’s companies were suspended.
Vanessa lost access to household and foundation accounts.
Raffaele also made a decision that cost him personally.
He temporarily stepped down as chair of the charity board while the audit examined his approvals.
Several capos objected.
“Looks weak,” one told him.
Raffaele answered, “Then look somewhere else.”
For twenty years, his authority had depended on never allowing anyone to question whether he was in control.
Now he was voluntarily allowing accountants to inspect every signature bearing his name.
That was harder than hitting Grant.
Grant reacted immediately.
He filed a police complaint about the rally assault and threatened a civil suit.
Vanessa’s attorney notified Caroline that she was considering the same.
Raffaele refused to pressure either one.
“If they want statements, I give one.”
Caroline studied him.
“You understand admitting exactly what happened can create consequences.”
“Yes.”
“You’re changing.”
“No.”
He looked toward Lily playing on Caroline’s office carpet.
“I’m trying to.”
Adrian faced consequences too.
His school learned about the rally through another teenager whose parents had attended.
The administration requested a meeting because video clips among guests showed Adrian shoving a security man.
Raffaele wanted to go.
Adrian asked him not to.
“Why?”
“Because everybody gets scared when you walk into rooms.”
Raffaele almost argued.
Then stopped.
Caroline attended with him instead.
The school reviewed witness statements and did not discipline Adrian immediately, but required counseling while it investigated.
Adrian hated that.
Still, he went.
The cost of the confrontation had spread far beyond the courtyard.
That evening, the audit team called Raffaele.
They had identified the person who approved the earliest suspicious rally payments.
Not Grant.
Not Vanessa.
Matteo Moretti.
May you like
Adrian’s father.
Two years before his death.
