Chapter 14 - Daniel’s Reason
Police found Daniel at his sister’s house.
He did not run.
He did not destroy anything.
He simply hired his own attorney and stopped speaking.
The scissors were enough to raise questions.
Not enough by themselves to prove he cut the strap.
Then forensic review found synthetic fibers on the blades consistent with the damaged strap material.
Daniel eventually agreed to an interview through counsel.
“Yes. I cut it.”
Marcello sat across from him.
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa was backing out.”
“What?”
“She told me before the gala she wanted to confess after the speech.”
Vanessa had reached the end.
Lily asking about the baby.
She wanted out before the merger vote.
His fee depended on closing.
So he damaged the prosthetic.
Not to expose her publicly.
To remind her how vulnerable the lie was.
He planned to confront her upstairs and force her to continue.
But Lily wandered into the blue room.
Daniel heard voices and left.
His intimidation attempt created the exact exposure he feared.
Marcello stared at the man who had served as family counsel for nine years.
“You helped me investigate yourself.”
“I thought I could control what you found.”
“That’s insane.”
“Yes.”
There was no clever defense.
Just greed mixed with arrogance.
Daniel had drafted structures he told himself were legal.
He knew the pregnancy verification was questionable.
Later he learned it was false.
By then he had too much money tied to the deal.
Marcello asked:
“Did Luca know about you?”
“Partly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Luca discovered my fee arrangement.”
“When?”
“Two days before he died.”
Again, no evidence Daniel had anything to do with Luca’s accident.
Marcello refused to turn coincidence into accusation.
Then Daniel said something else.
“Luca recorded our last meeting.”
“Where is it?”
“I thought Vanessa had it.”
Vanessa said she did not.
Elena suddenly remembered Lily’s first words.
That lady’s belly fell off upstairs.
Then:
I can show you where she hid it.
Lily had shown them the belly.
But she had also said something else that night nobody followed up on.
“Baby pictures.”
May you like
Marcello went back to the blue room.
And behind the box of fake ultrasounds, he found Luca’s old phone.
