Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
By breakfast, Sterling Capital had frozen a credit line supporting twelve hundred jobs. Alessandro could stop the immediate collapse only by signing away a controlling stake to Victoria's father.
Mara found him in the library, surrounded by financial statements. "You can save the employees without saving the people who stole from them," she said.
"How?"
"Tell them what's happening. Let the contracts be examined."
He studied her. "You're not scared of losing this house?"
"I lived without it for eighteen years. I am scared of you choosing it over the truth."
Alessandro called an emergency meeting of his board and invited Elena, an independent auditor, and the union representative. He disclosed the frozen credit, the suspected shell companies, and his own responsibility for letting Enzo operate without oversight. It was not a speech designed to make him look good.
Afterward, a kitchen worker named Lidia approached Mara. "Victoria made us sign incident reports saying you were drunk," she whispered. "I kept my original copy. The dates don't match."
Celia brought two more staff members who had been threatened with losing housing if they spoke. They agreed to give independent statements.
"I thought nobody cared," Lidia said.
"I did too," Mara answered.
Rios arrived with the preliminary lab report. The remains were consistent with an adult woman, but identification needed comparison samples. A piece of metal had been recovered near the ribs. The medical examiner wanted to investigate possible gunshot trauma.
Mara swallowed. "So she didn't die in that fire?"
"We cannot make conclusions yet," Rios said. "But someone went to considerable trouble to hide what happened."
When Rios left, Alessandro opened the family safe and found the supposed confession his father had shown him. Isabella's signature was there, sharp and clean.
Elena held it toward the light. "This paper wasn't manufactured until 2011," she said, pointing to the security mark.
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The confession was dated 2008.
Someone had forged the evidence years after Isabella was already gone.
