Chapter 7: The Last Move
Ellis traced Adrian’s call to the private hangar.
We arrived with the officers while dawn was breaking beyond the runway.
Adrian sat against a car, holding his shoulder.
A black case rested beneath his other hand.
“I’m all right,” he said.
“Victor’s driver tried to take the case.”
Victor stopped beside Mother.
“I gave no such instruction.”
Adrian pointed toward the driver being placed in a patrol car.
“He has your messages on his phone.”
Victor’s face emptied.
Mother leaned close to him.
“Fix this.”
“You told me the lodge was voluntary,” Victor said.
“I paid you not to ask questions.”
“And now you are finished paying me.”
Victor walked to the officers and held out his phone.
“My client instructed me to arrange transport and remove financial records from the country.
I will cooperate.”
Mother laughed bitterly.
“You spineless little man.”
Adrian unlocked the case.
Lucia’s letters lay inside beside a hard drive and a ledger.
“Every guard signed in,” he said.
“Every food delivery, every payment, every order from Mrs.
D’Angelo.”
Mother pointed at him.
“He took money.
That makes him part of it.”
“It does,” Adrian said.
“I’m prepared to answer for that.”
He turned to Lucia.
“I heard you crying behind that door.
I told myself I needed the job.
I am sorry.”
Lucia studied him for several seconds.
“You cannot give us those years back.”
“No.”
“But you kept the letters.”
“I kept them because one day I hoped to become less of a coward.”
Sophie peeked from behind Lucia.
“You brought my crayons.”
Adrian’s eyes filled.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
An officer took the case.
Another read Mother her rights and reached for her wrists.
“Wait,” she said.
“Roman deserves to see the will before he destroys his family for a woman who lied to him.”
At the bank, an independent executor opened the deposit box while two investigators watched.
Inside was my father’s will, a letter, and records showing that Mother had diverted forty-two million dollars from the children’s hospital foundation.
The executor adjusted his glasses.
“The will grants Lucia thirty percent of the voting shares because she discovered the missing foundation funds.
Roman receives controlling authority when Sophie reaches the age of three.”
Mother gave me a thin smile.
“Now you understand.
Lucia knew exactly what she stood to gain.”
Lucia looked at me.
“I knew nothing about the shares.”
“She read the will with your father.”
“I read the section about the hospital.
He never showed me the rest.”
Mother stepped closer.
“Choose carefully, Roman.
If you support her, the company will fracture.
Thousands of employees will blame you.”
The board members had gathered by video link.
Mother faced the screen.
“I move that Roman be suspended as chief executive due to emotional incapacity.”
Three hands rose.
Then four.
My mother needed five votes, and the fifth director slowly lifted his hand.
She had won.
“Remove him,” she told the officers.
“He no longer has authority here.”
The executor cleared his throat.
“Mrs.
D’Angelo, you overlooked the final page.”
He placed it on the table.
“Any trustee who conceals a beneficiary or falsifies medical evidence forfeits every share, every board seat, and every claim to the D’Angelo estate.”
The fifth director lowered his hand.
Mother snatched the page and tore it across the middle.
The executor calmly opened a second folder.
“That was a certified copy.”
Two officers moved beside her.
“You are being taken into custody for unlawful confinement, fraud, evidence tampering, and child endangerment,” one said.
Mother looked at me as the restraints closed.
“You will come begging when Lucia takes your money and leaves.”
Lucia took my hand.
Mother’s eyes dropped to our joined fingers.
“I made you, Roman.”
I met her gaze.
“You taught me fear and called it love.
Sophie will never confuse the two.”
The officers led her toward the door, but she twisted back.
“You will forgive me.
Sons always forgive their mothers.”
“No,” I said.
“Sometimes sons protect their daughters.”
The door closed behind her.
Then the executor picked up my father’s letter.
May you like
“There is one final instruction,” he said.
“It concerns what must happen to the D’Angelo estate.”
