Chapter 3 - Financial Ruin and the Ledger of Sins
Gabriel Moretti,
the forensic accountant who could find a missing penny in a black hole,
stepped into the light.
He held a tablet up,
projecting a series of documents onto the large white wall of the ballroom.
The guests gasped as bank statements,
private emails,
and photos of illicit transactions appeared for all to see.
"Let's talk about the Cole Construction Empire,"
Gabriel said,
his tone that of a bored professor.
"Or as I like to call it,
the largest Ponzi scheme in the tri-state area."
He swiped his finger across the screen.
"Adrian,
you’ve been skimming from the city’s infrastructure fund for years."
"Lies!"
Adrian shouted,
though his face was now the color of ash.
"Every word is a lie!"
"Is it?"
Gabriel asked,
tilting his head.
"Because here is the paper trail showing the five million you moved into Vanessa’s account last month to buy that silver dress she’s so proud of."
The guests turned to look at Vanessa.
She looked like she wanted to melt into the floorboards.
"And here,"
Gabriel continued,
"is the evidence of the safety violations you ignored on the harbor bridge project."
"People died because of your greed,
Adrian,"
I said,
my voice cutting through the room.
I looked at the guests,
many of whom were investors in Adrian's company.
"He didn't just hurt me tonight.
He’s been stealing from all of you for years."
The shift in the room was palpable.
The pity they had felt for me—or the mockery—turned into a cold,
sharp anger directed at the man in the center of the room.
A man who had just been outed as a fraud.
"You’re finished,"
one of the investors spat,
stepping away from Adrian.
"I want my money back,
Cole!"
"There is no money back,"
Nico piped in cheerfully.
"It’s all gone.
Every cent has been rerouted to a charity for victims of domestic abuse."
He looked at me and winked.
Adrian looked around the room,
realizing that his walls were crumbling.
His power,
his reputation,
his wealth—it was all evaporating in the span of a few minutes.
He turned back to me,
his eyes filled with a desperate,
ugly rage.
"You did this,"
he hissed,
lunging toward me.
"You bitch,
you did this!"
He didn't even get within three feet of me.
Matteo moved with a speed that was a blur to the eye.
He caught Adrian by the throat and lifted him off the ground with one hand.
The sound of Adrian choking was muffled by the collective gasp of the audience.
"Don't,"
Matteo warned,
his voice vibrating with a lethal intent.
"Don't even breathe the same air as her."
He dropped Adrian like a sack of trash.
Dominic stepped over Adrian's sprawling form and looked at me.
"Are you ready to go,
Elena?"
"Not yet,"
I said,
standing up.
The pain in my back was a dull roar,
May you like
but I felt a strange sense of peace.
"I want him to see the rest."
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