Chapter 8 - NINETY DAYS
Ninety days was enough to transfer voting control.
Enough to activate the post-marital management agreement.
Enough to let Lucinda speak for me while Raymond controlled Ruby's trust votes.
Together, they could control more than half the company.
I called an emergency board meeting.
Lucinda arrived with lawyers.
"You can't remove me from committees based on accusations," she said.
"Watch me."
My board was divided.
Three directors had business ties to Raymond's foundation.
One argued that I was reacting emotionally.
I placed the video of Lucinda removing Ruby's brace on the screen.
Nobody spoke after that.
Then Daniel presented the forged medical records.
The fake guardianship petition.
The disability policy.
Lucinda's lawyer asked for a recess.
I refused.
"You wanted private rooms when my daughter was the one crying. You can sit here now."
The board suspended every Vale-related contract.
Then one director, Paul Renner, stood.
"Before we pretend we're clean, Salvatore should explain this."
He projected a document.
A charitable transfer from Bellandi Logistics to Raymond's foundation.
Ten million dollars.
My signature.
This one was real.
The room shifted.
I remembered signing it after Isabella died.
Raymond told me the grant would fund pediatric rehabilitation in her memory.
I had not read the full attachment.
Paul looked at me.
"You financed them."
The accusation landed because it was true.
Not knowingly.
But money did not care what I knew.
After the meeting, Marco found Paul in the parking garage.
He was trying to leave with a banker box.
Inside were original Vale invoices dating back eight years.
And one handwritten note from Isabella.
May you like
PAUL KNOWS WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
Paul looked at me and whispered, "If I talk, Raymond will kill me."
