Chapter 4 - THE MORETTI TRUST
Nicholas had been away in London for six months.
He returned because Alessandra had left instructions.
“If anything happens to me, wait until Gabriel begins questioning Lily's treatment.”
Gabriel stared.
“You had this for fourteen months?”
“I had instructions.”
“You watched me bury my wife.”
Nicholas flinched.
“I was trying to keep your daughters alive.”
Gabriel crossed the room.
Emma stepped between them.
Both men stared at her.
She looked at Gabriel.
“Not in front of the children.”
Sophia was watching.
Gabriel stopped.
That alone shocked Nicholas.
They moved to the study.
The will contained an unusual provision.
Alessandra had inherited a forty-eight percent stake in Bellacosta Shipping from her father.
On her death, the shares went into trust for Sophia and Lily.
If both children remained minors, Gabriel controlled the trust.
Unless one child was declared permanently medically dependent.
In that case, an independent trustee assumed control over half the voting shares.
The trustee named in an amendment?
Jonathan Hail.
Gabriel understood.
“If Lily was declared permanently disabled—”
“Jonathan controlled twenty-four percent of Bellacosta,” Nicholas finished.
Worth nearly two billion dollars.
Emma frowned.
“But Lily really does have nerve damage.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said.
“So he didn't cause her disability.”
“No.”
“He only needed to make sure she never improved enough to challenge the classification.”
The room went silent.
The specialists.
The altered reports.
The shifting rugs.
The constant hands.
The fear.
Maybe nobody had been directly hurting Lily.
Maybe something subtler had happened.
Every environment around her had been designed to reinforce dependence.
Gabriel felt sick.
“I paid for it.”
Emma looked at him.
“You were lied to.”
“I signed every check.”
“That doesn't make you the person who lied.”
He looked away.
Later that evening, Emma found him sitting alone in the playroom.
Lily's walker stood beside him.
“You can't punish yourself into becoming a better father.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Do you always talk this much?”
“When people need annoying.”
He almost smiled.
Then he asked:
“Why did you really leave teaching?”
Emma's expression changed.
“My mother got sick.”
“You told me that.”
“You don't believe me?”
“I believe it isn't all of it.”
She sat opposite him.
“I was fired.”
Gabriel waited.
“A boy in my class had bruises.”
Her voice lowered.
“I reported them.”
“The school?”
“His father was a major donor.”
Gabriel understood immediately.
“They buried it.”
“They said I had crossed professional boundaries.”
“What happened to the boy?”
“His aunt eventually got custody.”
“And you?”
“I became difficult to hire.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You lost your career for protecting a child.”
“I lost a job.”
“There's a difference?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward Lily's walker.
“Jobs come back.”
Gabriel's gaze stayed on her.
Something inside the coldest man in New York shifted.
Then Marco entered.
“We found Hail.”
“Where?”
“He isn't running.”
Gabriel stood.
“Then what is he doing?”
Marco handed him a photograph.
Jonathan was entering Moretti Memorial Hospital.
Specifically, the pediatric rehabilitation wing.
And according to hospital records, he had scheduled a private meeting with Lily's neurologist.
May you like
For midnight.
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