Chapter 13 - Arturo’s Final Confession
Silvio read the letter in a private evidence room while detectives copied the hard drives.
Arturo’s handwriting became less steady with every page.
He confessed that three decades earlier, the Moretti group had acquired its first major hotel through a fraudulent foreclosure scheme.
Arturo had not created the scheme.
Harold Voss had.
Voss had been a young attorney then.
He forged creditor records.
Arturo benefited.
The first hotel became five.
Then eleven.
Then an empire.
For thirty-one years, Voss held the original documents.
He used them whenever Arturo resisted him.
Mateo eventually discovered the old fraud while tracing Grant’s newer theft.
That was why everything had escalated.
Mateo was not merely about to expose Grant.
He was about to expose Voss.
And Arturo.
Silvio put the letter down.
Lucinda sat across from him.
Her face was empty.
“Our father knew.”
“Yes.”
“He knew all those years.”
“Yes.”
“And Mateo died because he tried to tell the truth.”
Silvio looked toward the glass where Ethan and Mia were sleeping in a protected room.
“Yes.”
Lucinda covered her face.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she whispered.
“I helped Grant.”
Silvio looked at her.
“I signed transfers.”
“I told myself they were temporary.”
“I told myself the company would replace the money.”
“I told myself Grant loved me.”
Her voice broke.
“Every lie made the next lie easier.”
Silvio did not comfort her.
Some truths did not deserve immediate comfort.
Lucinda lowered her hands.
“What happens to me?”
“That depends on what you do now.”
She looked at him.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“I gave you the truth.”
“Not all of it.”
Silvio placed a bank record in front of her.
A payment made two weeks after Mateo’s death.
Nine hundred thousand dollars.
From a shell company connected to Grant.
To an account in Lucinda’s name.
Her face drained.
Silvio watched her carefully.
“You knew this existed.”
“No.”
“Don’t lie now.”
“I swear.”
“Grant transferred nearly a million dollars to you after Mateo died.”
“I never saw it.”
“It paid off the mortgage on your Aspen property.”
Lucinda stared at the page.
“Grant handled that property.”
Silvio believed she was surprised.
But surprise did not equal innocence.
She touched the paper.
“Why would he put it in my name?”
“To make sure you could never testify without implicating yourself.”
Lucinda looked up.
Silvio continued.
“He built a cage around you.”
“Then convinced you it was a palace.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“What do I do?”
Silvio slid a phone across the table.
“You call the prosecutor.”
“And then?”
“You tell them everything.”
Lucinda stared at the phone.
“I could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
She looked toward the children.
Ethan shifted in his sleep.
Mia’s hand rested on his arm.
Lucinda closed her eyes.
Then she picked up the phone.
“My name is Lucinda Moretti Holloway.”
Her voice trembled.
“I need to amend my statement.”
Silvio watched her.
“And I need to confess to financial crimes involving the trusts of Ethan and Mia Moretti.”
That phone call lasted three hours.
By sunrise, investigators had names.
Accounts.
Dates.
Judges.
Bank executives.
Two lawyers.
A private security contractor.
And one state senator.
Grant had believed he was the center of the conspiracy.
He was not.
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Voss had created a network.
And now that network knew Lucinda was talking.
