Chapter 3
Leo remembered only fragments.
Claire insisted Dante not question him repeatedly.
So they arranged one conversation with a child psychologist present.
No leading questions.
No family pressure.
Dr. Hannah Price sat at a small table with Leo while Dante remained nearby.
“What do you remember hearing?” she asked.
Leo shrugged.
“Javier was mad.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you hear him say?”
Leo thought.
“He said, ‘You started this.’”
Dante looked toward Claire.
She wrote nothing visibly.
Hannah continued.
“What did Clara say?”
“She said, ‘I fixed what I could.’”
“Anything else?”
Leo nodded.
“She said he was making it worse.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“And Javier?”
Leo stared at the tabletop.
“He said if Dante sees the notice, they’re both finished.”
Dante felt the words settle.
Both.
Not Javier alone.
Not Clara alone.
Both.
That afternoon, the forensic accountant traced the loan proceeds.
$2.8 million paid overdue contractors on Javier’s waterfront development.
$900,000 covered a loan covenant deficiency.
$400,000 moved into a reserve account.
The remainder paid lender and transaction fees.
On the surface, Javier benefited completely.
Clara appeared nowhere.
Dante confronted Javier with counsel present.
“You were weeks from default.”
Javier said nothing.
“The lake property saved your project.”
Silence.
“You want to keep telling me it isn’t what I think?”
Javier looked toward his lawyer.
Then answered.
“I used the money.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“So you admit it.”
“I admit the project received it.”
“Did you arrange the loan?”
Javier hesitated.
“No.”
Dante almost stood.
Claire touched the table.
He remained seated.
“Then who did?”
Javier looked toward the window.
“I’m not answering that yet.”
Dante laughed once.
“Of course.”
Javier continued.
“I found out after the money had already moved.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
“When?”
“When I decide whether telling you destroys more than staying quiet.”
Dante stared at him.
“You pinned my son to the ground for a document.”
Javier’s face changed.
Shame.
Real shame.
“I know.”
“You shoved Mia.”
“I know.”
“You are no longer deciding the schedule.”
Javier looked down.
But he still refused to name whoever arranged the loan.
That evening, Claire brought another piece.
The original appraisal request for the lake property had been ordered thirteen months earlier.
Two months before Javier’s development faced its first documented cash crisis.
Dante frowned.
“If Javier needed emergency money eleven months ago, why was somebody valuing the property two months before that?”
Claire nodded.
“Exactly.”
The request came from a personal email account.
May you like
Not Javier’s.
Clara’s.
