Chapter 6 - The Man at Massimo’s Table
Carlo Rizzi denied everything.
He did it from Massimo’s own conference room.
“You’re listening to a frightened husband talking nonsense,” Carlo said.
Massimo sat across from him with Detective Torres and two company attorneys.
“I heard your voice.”
“You heard a recording.”
“It was you.”
Carlo leaned back. “Forty years, Massimo. That’s how long I’ve stood beside you.”
“Then forty years should make lying harder.”
Carlo’s eyes hardened.
Torres placed financial records on the table.
Millions had moved from Bellandi Freight subsidiaries into consulting companies tied to Grant.
Isabella’s electronic signature appeared on several approvals.
She had never seen them.
Carlo shrugged. “Ask your daughter.”
Massimo stood.
Torres said, “Sit down.”
He did.
That command would have shocked half the men who knew him twenty years earlier.
Carlo noticed too.
“You’ve gotten soft.”
Massimo looked at him.
“No. I finally learned what strength costs when you use it stupidly.”
Carlo’s smile disappeared.
Company counsel froze Carlo’s access pending audit.
There was not enough yet for an arrest.
Outside the room, Isabella waited with Noah.
She looked exhausted.
“I signed some things Grant gave me,” she admitted. “I didn’t read everything.”
“Because you trusted your husband,” Massimo said.
“I should have known.”
“No.”
She looked up.
He repeated it.
“No.”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
Massimo had spent his life teaching everyone around him that mistakes were weaknesses to exploit.
He was only now learning how dangerous that lesson became inside a family.
That evening, Isabella’s attorney found the clause Grant wanted.
If a beneficiary was declared incapacitated, a court-appointed guardian could exercise limited voting authority over the trust shares.
Grant’s custody filing included a request for psychiatric evaluation.
The financial plan and the family-court plan were the same plan.
Then Torres called.
They had found Rosa.
Alive.
She was in a motel in New Jersey, terrified and dehydrated.
Massimo drove there with Isabella.
Rosa began crying when she saw them.
“I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Isabella said.
Rosa gripped her hands.
“He knew about the camera. I ran before he could take the card.”
“Did Grant threaten you?” Torres asked.
Rosa nodded.
“Grant threatened everybody.”
She looked at Massimo.
“But the person I heard giving him orders wasn’t Carlo.”
Massimo frowned.
May you like
Rosa whispered:
“It was Evelyn.”
