Chapter 5 - WHY REGINA WAS CHOSEN
The investigation lasted weeks before anything dramatic happened.
That was the part movies never showed.
Interviews.
Forensic copies.
Bank records.
Subpoenas.
Experts checking shipping logs.
Rachel auditing my trust.
Michael meeting federal prosecutors with three attorneys and a face that made everybody in the room sit straighter.
Tony remained free.
Arthur remained publicly untouched.
That made Michael furious.
But he did not act.
For Zach.
For Elena.
Maybe, slowly, for himself.
Regina disappeared for nine days.
Then called Rachel.
Not me.
Smart.
She wanted a lawyer present.
When we finally heard her statement, the truth was uglier than I expected and simpler than Michael feared.
Tony had approached Regina eighteen months earlier.
Not randomly.
He knew she was trustee of Samuel Bennett’s estate.
At first, he encouraged her gambling.
Credit.
Private tables.
Friendly extensions.
Then losses.
Then debt.
Fifty thousand was only the amount Tony claimed she owed immediately.
Her actual losses were much higher.
“Did she know why he wanted Aurora?” I asked.
Rachel shook her head.
“Not initially.”
“Later?”
“Eventually, Tony asked her whether you had access to the Warren Street property.”
I felt sick.
“What did she say?”
“That you knew nothing about the trust.”
True.
“Then?”
“He told her that was useful.”
Of course.
Tony did not need me informed.
He needed me controlled.
Regina was supposed to bring me to him.
He would pressure me into authorizing entry or transfer.
Instead, I ran.
For months.
Brooklyn.
Queens.
Bronx.
Every time Regina found me, I assumed she was simply relentless.
Now I knew Tony had men tracing me.
Michael sat across from me in Bellarosa after closing.
“You should move.”
“No.”
He sighed.
“I knew that answer before asking.”
“Good.”
“Security?”
“Yes.”
That surprised him.
“Two men downstairs.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Michael.”
“One downstairs, one across the street.”
I stared.
He added:
“They do not enter without permission.”
“Fine.”
Negotiation.
Progress.
Then Tony made his first mistake.
He contacted me directly.
Unknown number.
“You’ve caused trouble.”
His voice was almost friendly.
“You created the trouble.”
“Your father stole from people.”
“My father preserved evidence.”
“Same thing depending on the room.”
I looked at Michael.
He was listening through my speakerphone.
Tony continued:
“I only want what belongs to me.”
“Elena’s records?”
Silence.
Then:
“You’ve been talking to Michael.”
“Yes.”
“That won’t end well for you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
He sounded amused.
“Advice.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
I continued:
“Then here’s mine.”
“What?”
“Stop using women’s desperation as your business model.”
Tony laughed.
Then hung up.
Two days later, federal agents arrested him on unrelated financial charges tied to the same network.
Not the whole case.
Enough to hold him.
Regina agreed to cooperate.
She also faced charges for trust fraud.
Rachel recovered records showing Regina diverted more than four hundred thousand dollars of trust income.
Not all was gambled.
Some paid her mortgage.
Travel.
Jewelry.
Debt.
She had stolen from me.
That remained true even if Tony manipulated her.
I refused to see her.
Not yet.
Then Zach came to my apartment after school with Michael.
He carried a pink plastic ring.
“What’s that?”
“Your engagement ring.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“Zach.”
“What?”
“You cannot keep proposing on behalf of other people.”
“It’s mine.”
He slid it onto my finger.
It barely fit.
“Now it’s official.”
I looked at Michael.
“You object?”
“Primarily to the quality.”
Zach gasped.
“Dad!”
“This cost twelve cents.”
“Love isn’t money.”
The room went still.
Michael looked at his son.
I looked too.
“Where did you hear that?” I asked.
“Aunt Teresa.”
Michael sighed.
“Of course.”
Later, after Zach fell asleep on my couch during a movie, Michael remained.
We spoke quietly.
“He trusts you.”
“I like him.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
I looked at Zach.
Michael continued:
“He hasn’t trusted new adults easily since Elena died.”
“He was one.”
“He doesn’t remember the accident.”
“No.”
“But he remembers people disappearing afterward.”
Nannies.
Security changes.
Vincent gone.
Michael grieving.
Children remembered instability even when they lacked names for it.
Then:
“He asked me last year if Elena died because of him.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“He overheard someone say she was driving home because he had a fever.”
“Oh, God.”
“I told him no.”
“Good.”
“He still asks sometimes.”
I looked at Michael.
“What do you tell him now?”
“That his mother made a choice to come home because she loved him.”
“And another adult made a terrible choice that caused the crash.”
“He does not carry that.”
I nodded.
Then Michael said:
“You’re good with him.”
“So are you.”
His expression shifted.
“People don’t usually say that.”
“What do they say?”
“That I provide.”
“Protect.”
“Control.”
I smiled faintly.
“Last one sounds familiar.”
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
No defensiveness.
Good.
Then his phone rang.
Nico.
Arthur Moretti had disappeared from his Manhattan apartment.
Car gone.
Phones off.
Michael stood.
“Where?”
“Unknown.”
Then Nico added:
“And Dr. Stephen Caruso is missing too.”
I frowned.
“Who?”
Michael went pale.
“Zach’s pediatrician.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why would Arthur take his doctor?”
Michael looked toward his sleeping son.
“I don’t know.”
Then Zach shifted under the blanket and whispered in his sleep:
“No doctor.”
Michael froze.
May you like
We looked at each other.
For the first time, his refusal to see Dr. Caruso no longer sounded like ordinary childhood fear.
