Chapter 3
The guests were interviewed separately.
Not by Raffaele.
His attorney, Rebecca Shaw, insisted on that.
“You’ve already punched one man and slapped your wife in front of witnesses.”
“Grant charged Adrian.”
“And you can say that in your statement.”
“Vanessa grabbed Lily.”
“And you removed her hand.”
Rebecca held his gaze.
“What happened after that is still your responsibility.”
Raffaele nodded.
He gave a full account.
No pressure on witnesses.
No disappearing footage.
No quiet family version.
Then Rebecca began asking why nobody intervened before Raffaele returned.
The answers repeated.
Vanessa said Raffaele approved the discipline.
Grant said Adrian had behavioral problems.
Security personnel had been told Adrian was trained to fight and should be restrained quickly if he interfered.
Several guests assumed the children’s treatment was harsh but authorized.
One woman admitted:
“I thought if you wanted it stopped, you’d stop it.”
Raffaele sat with that longer than he wanted to.
His reputation had done part of Vanessa’s work for her.
Then the rally operations manager, Eric Walsh, mentioned something strange.
“The same two security guys have been at every event Adrian supposedly caused trouble.”
Raffaele looked up.
“Every event?”
“Three that I remember.”
One had been the Memorial Day cookout.
Another a charity garage auction.
The third a private riders’ dinner.
At each one, Adrian had been written up for “aggressive interference.”
Rebecca requested the reports.
Grant had signed all three.
Raffaele read the first page.
INCIDENT TRIGGERED BY MINOR ADRIAN MORETTI REFUSING FAMILY INSTRUCTION.
The wording bothered him.
Not because it was false.
Because it sounded prepared.
He turned to Eric.
“Who wrote these?”
“Grant.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
Raffaele looked toward the courtyard.
Three incidents.
Same boy.
Same security men.
Same adult writing the record.
May you like
That did not look like discipline anymore.
It looked like somebody was building a file.
