Chapter 13
The board investigation concluded three months later.
Preston had blurred museum resources with Heritage Hospitality repeatedly.
Staff time.
Event equipment.
Vendor discounts.
Parts of the residential wing.
Not every questionable expense was fraud.
Enough violated conflict-of-interest rules to justify termination and reimbursement demands.
The board referred disputed financial issues to outside counsel and insurers.
Preston resigned from his remaining Ventresca business roles before other reviews could finish.
Rocco did not block him.
He also did not protect him.
Victoria cooperated with the investigation.
Her signatures appeared on several inappropriate approvals.
She admitted which ones she understood and which ones Preston misrepresented.
She did not claim the forged memo made her innocent.
That distinction mattered.
Rocco faced his own consequences from the charity event.
Footage clearly showed Preston attacking first.
It also showed Rocco striking Victoria after removing her hand from Elliot.
His attorneys negotiated the legal consequences.
Rocco accepted responsibility instead of using influence to make the footage disappear.
Anger-management counseling irritated him at first.
Then one session focused on the difference between stopping a threat and punishing someone after the threat had stopped.
Rocco thought about Victoria flying backward into the puppet display.
He had protected Elliot when he removed her hand.
The slap afterward had been anger.
That distinction was uncomfortable.
It was also true.
At the museum, Celeste’s children’s gallery reopened unchanged.
Except for one addition.
A small label near the entrance explained that the program had been founded by Celeste Ventresca and would remain permanently dedicated to children’s access and education.
Rocco refused to turn it into a shrine.
Celeste had hated sentimental plaques.
Instead, he funded more school visits.
That felt closer to what she wanted.
The clockwork drummer did not return to the museum collection.
May you like
It belonged to Elliot.
This time the records said so.
