Chapter 6 - Ruby’s Red Notebook
Ruby did not understand forensic accounting.
She understood crayons.
On Tuesday afternoon she sat cross-legged on the rug of Sofia’s morning room while Domenico sorted old papers.
Her red notebook lay open beside her.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Can I draw Mama’s desk?”
“You can draw anything.”
Ruby selected a blue crayon.
Domenico looked over.
The page showed a large rectangle with four stick figures.
Ruby.
Domenico.
Valentina.
Marcus.
Marcus was holding several blue rectangles.
Domenico’s attention sharpened.
“Who’s that?”
“Mr. Marcus.”
“What is he holding?”
“Papers.”
“When did you see him?”
Ruby continued coloring.
“When it was dark.”
“Were you supposed to be asleep?”
“Yes.”
“Why were you awake?”
“Bunny fell.”
Domenico smiled faintly.
Bunny caused many midnight emergencies.
“Then what happened?”
“I got Bunny.”
“And?”
“Mr. Marcus was in here.”
“In Mama’s room?”
She nodded.
“What was he doing?”
“Putting blue papers in his bag.”
Domenico forced himself not to lead her.
“What kind of bag?”
Ruby thought.
“Black.”
“Did anyone else come?”
“Valentina.”
“What did she do?”
Ruby switched crayons.
“They whisper-fighted.”
Domenico almost smiled at the phrase.
“What did they say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anything you remember?”
Ruby drew a speech bubble.
“She said, ‘You said it was finished.’”
Domenico’s pulse changed.
“Valentina said that?”
Ruby nodded.
“What did Marcus say?”
“He said go bed.”
“To you?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Valentina got mad at me.”
“What did she say?”
Ruby stopped coloring.
Her little hand tightened.
“She said I make Daddy sad because I keep Mama here.”
Domenico could not speak for several seconds.
Ruby looked up.
“Do I?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
He moved onto the rug beside her.
“You could talk about Mama every day for the rest of my life and you would never make me sad because you remember her.”
“But you get sad.”
“Yes.”
“That means I make you sad.”
“No.”
He searched for language a five-year-old could carry.
“Missing Mama makes me sad. Loving Mama makes me happy. Sometimes both happen together.”
Ruby considered this.
“Like crying on my birthday?”
Domenico smiled painfully.
“Exactly.”
She nodded, satisfied.
Then she turned another page.
More drawings.
Suitcases.
A dark room.
A gold chair.
One showed Ruby sitting inside a square while three adults stood outside.
Domenico pointed carefully.
“What is this?”
“The punishment room.”
His stomach dropped.
“You have been there before?”
Ruby shook her head.
“Valentina showed me.”
“When?”
“A long time.”
To a five-year-old, that could mean yesterday or last month.
“What did she say?”
“That if I keep being bad, I sleep there.”
Domenico closed his eyes.
This had not been impulsive.
He took photographs of the drawings, then called Ms. Avery.
She advised him not to keep questioning Ruby repeatedly.
“If there is going to be a formal family or legal dispute, let trained professionals interview her once rather than every adult asking versions of the same questions.”
Domenico agreed immediately.
He hated that his daughter had already been asked to carry too much.
That evening he and Ruby ate dinner alone.
Her gold chair was back.
She noticed.
“You fixed it.”
“It was never broken.”
“Valentina took it.”
“I know.”
Ruby climbed onto it.
Domenico sat beside her rather than at the head of the table.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Is Valentina coming back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is Mr. Marcus?”
“No.”
That answer was easier.
Ruby pushed peas around her plate.
“Is he bad?”
Domenico paused.
He did not want to teach his daughter that people could be sorted as simply as crayons.
“He made choices I need to understand.”
“Like taking Mama’s papers?”
“Yes.”
“That’s bad.”
“That choice was.”
Ruby ate one pea.
Then another.
“Valentina said Mama’s papers belong to grown-ups.”
“Some do.”
“Then I was bad?”
“No.”
“You said some.”
Domenico almost laughed.
“You are very good at arguments.”
“What’s arguments?”
“Something you’re apparently excellent at.”
She smiled.
Later that night Adrian arrived with preliminary accounting findings.
Aurelia Heritage was not directly owned by Marcus.
That would have been too easy.
It was owned by a holding company controlled by a man named Peter Laurent.
Peter Laurent had been Marcus’s business partner nine years earlier.
More importantly, bank records legally obtained through the company’s own vendor-review process showed that Aurelia had paid substantial consulting fees to Ravel Strategic Holdings.
Marcus’s company.
“How much?” Domenico asked.
“About $240,000 tied to projects your foundation paid for.”
“Can we prove overbilling?”
“Not yet.”
“Can we prove Marcus concealed his relationship?”
“Yes.”
Domenico nodded slowly.
Adrian placed another document down.
“And this is where it becomes personal.”
The payment that satisfied Valentina’s $180,000 loan had come from Ravel Strategic Holdings.
Two days after Ravel received a large Aurelia consulting payment.
Domenico stared.
“So Marcus did repay her.”
“Yes.”
“Technically.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Rachel think Aurelia paid it?”
“Because the money moved through Ravel within forty-eight hours.”
Domenico leaned back.
That mattered.
Valentina’s disclosure was not necessarily false.
But she had received repayment from money connected to a company she later helped her brother access.
Adrian continued.
“We also found an email.”
“From whom?”
“Marcus to Valentina.”
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
Domenico read it.
You wanted the old debt gone. It’s gone. Stop acting nervous every time Sofia’s foundation comes up.
Domenico read the sentence again.
Then Adrian showed him Valentina’s response.
Only four words.
May you like
Ruby saw the folder.
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