Chapter 10 - The Man Above Celeste
The obvious suspect was Grant Weller.
Dante wanted it to be Grant.
An outsider was simpler.
Detective Reeves was not convinced.
"Grant benefits financially," she said. "But the message style doesn't match the known communications we've recovered."
"Then Victor."
"Possible."
"Who else?"
Reeves looked at him.
"Who benefits if you and Celeste destroy each other?"
Dante had no answer.
Nora did.
"Charles."
Dante turned.
Board chairman Charles Delaney had served beside Lorenzo Moretti for twenty-three years.
He owned six percent of Moretti Meridian.
Not enough to control anything.
Unless Dante's twenty-seven percent and the children's eighteen percent became politically isolated.
Then Charles could broker the board.
"He called the first emergency meeting," Nora said.
"He also knew about the trust petition before I did."
Reeves asked, "Would he benefit from Bellaforte's sale?"
Dante thought.
"His private bank is one of Hawthorne's lenders."
Reeves' eyebrows lifted.
"That's relevant."
Priya dug into the relationship.
By midnight, she found it.
Delaney Private Bank had committed $110 million in acquisition financing for Hawthorne's purchase of Bellaforte.
The financing agreement contained a substantial origination fee.
Charles's family trust was a major shareholder in the bank.
Dante stared at the document.
"So Charles profits if Bellaforte sells."
"Yes."
"And if I refuse?"
"The loan doesn't close."
"What about Celeste?"
Priya turned the page.
"She profits later through Hawthorne."
"Different incentives. Same transaction."
Nora said, "They may have been partners who planned to betray each other."
That fit.
Too well.
The next morning, Detective Reeves received the first full forensic report from Javier's phone.
A secure messaging application contained remnants of deleted conversations.
Most were fragmentary.
One was not.
A message from an unidentified user to Javier:
Don't hurt the boy. We need Dante angry, not criminal charges. Get the device. Celeste handles the rest.
Dante read it twice.
The unknown mastermind had specifically instructed Javier not to hurt Leo.
Javier had lost control.
That mistake had brought police into the plan.
Another message:
If C panics, remind her we have the Lorenzo file.
Dante frowned.
"What Lorenzo file?"
Nora shook her head.
No one knew.
Bianca did.
When Dante showed her the phrase, his mother's face went white.
"What is it?"
She walked to the window.
"Your father made a payment."
"To whom?"
"A family."
"What family?"
Bianca turned.
"One of our construction workers died on a Moretti project twenty-one years ago."
Dante remembered vaguely.
A scaffolding collapse.
"The company settled."
"The company did."
"Then what's the secret?"
Bianca's voice dropped.
"The official investigation found contractor negligence. Lorenzo had an internal engineering memo warning about the scaffold system three weeks before the accident."
Dante stared.
"He buried it."
"Yes."
"Did Celeste know?"
"She was a junior lawyer then."
Nora's expression hardened.
"Did she help conceal evidence?"
Bianca closed her eyes.
"She handled the document review."
Dante stepped back.
That was the file.
A twenty-one-year-old cover-up.
If it became public, Celeste could face professional discipline, civil exposure and possibly criminal scrutiny depending on what she had done.
"Someone is blackmailing her with it."
Bianca nodded.
"Your father kept a private copy."
"Why?"
"Insurance."
Dante almost laughed.
Lorenzo Moretti had taught his children never to trust anyone completely.
Apparently that included each other.
"Where is it?"
"I don't know."
"Who did?"
"Charles."
Silence.
Dante looked at Reeves.
Bianca continued.
"Lorenzo gave Charles access to his private archive when his health failed."
There it was.
Charles had the leverage.
The bank.
The board position.
The reason to remove Dante.
The power to control Celeste through her oldest professional sin.
Dante felt no triumph.
Only disgust.
Celeste had betrayed him.
But someone had found the chain around her neck and pulled it.
Dante asked Bianca, "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because exposing it destroys your father's reputation."
"He's dead."
"His name is our name."
Dante looked toward Leo and Mia's school photographs on Bianca's mantel.
"No."
Bianca frowned.
Dante pointed to them.
"Their names are our names too."
He finally understood the difference between protecting a legacy and protecting a lie.
"We don't bury this."
Bianca whispered, "Dante."
"We give Reeves everything."
His mother's eyes filled with fear.
"If you expose Lorenzo, Moretti Meridian could face lawsuits."
"Then we face them."
"You could lose millions."
"So could Celeste."
"So could your children."
Dante went quiet.
There was the real cost.
The children's trust.
Their inheritance.
Their future.
Charles had counted on that.
Dante would have to choose between protecting the fortune he had promised his children and exposing the wrongdoing threatening them.
His phone buzzed.
A photograph arrived from an anonymous number.
It showed Leo and Mia leaving school with Rosa.
Taken that afternoon.
Below it were six words:
KEEP DIGGING AND YOU LOSE MORE.
May you like
Dante's blood turned cold.
The conspiracy had just stopped being financial again.
