Chapter 3 - THE MILLION-DOLLAR RING DIDN’T BELONG TO CHLOE
By morning, Chloe’s wedding had become a financial problem.
Not because of gossip.
Because of accounting.
Moretti Architectural Development had paid more than one million dollars to a luxury jeweler.
The expense description read:
VIP CLIENT RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT.
The “client gift” was currently on Chloe’s finger.
Or, more accurately, sitting inside an evidence bag after the police documented the staged theft accusation.
Dominic stared at the invoice in my father’s conference room.
“This makes no sense.”
Dad’s audit team had begun reviewing vendor payments connected to Vale Crown projects.
I sat at the far end of the table.
I had insisted on not participating in decisions involving Moretti contracts.
I wanted facts.
Not revenge.
The audit director explained:
“The jewelry payment was charged through a project-management subsidiary.”
Dominic rubbed his forehead.
“Who approved it?”
The answer appeared on the screen.
ELEANOR MORETTI.
My mother-in-law.
She was chief financial officer of the family company.
Chloe worked in “business development,” a title nobody had ever been able to explain.
“Where is my father?” Dominic asked.
His father, Anthony Moretti, had built the company thirty years earlier.
He had missed the wedding because of a medical procedure in Florida.
According to Dominic, Anthony believed the ring came from Chloe’s fiancé.
It hadn’t.
Chloe’s new husband, Jason Whitaker, arrived twenty minutes later with his attorney.
His face looked gray.
“I didn’t buy that ring.”
Nobody was surprised anymore.
“What did you think it cost?” Caroline asked.
“Chloe told me her mother gave it to her.”
He laughed bitterly.
“She said family diamonds.”
Family diamonds apparently came with invoice numbers.
Jason looked at me.
“I’m sorry about last night.”
“You didn’t tear my dress.”
“No.”
“You didn’t accuse me.”
“No.”
“Then apologize for what belongs to you, not what belongs to them.”
He nodded.
Good.
People in this family had spent years apologizing generally so nobody had to take responsibility specifically.
Then the audit director showed us more.
The ring was not the only wedding expense hidden inside company accounts.
Floral design.
$82,000.
Private rehearsal dinner.
$47,000.
Luxury transportation.
$29,000.
Part of the ballroom entertainment.
Even Chloe’s custom wedding gown had been coded as:
BRAND CAMPAIGN WARDROBE.
Total questionable wedding expenses:
$1.46 million.
Dominic whispered:
“My mother did this?”
Maybe.
But someone else had approved several transfers.
His code.
Dominic’s face changed when his own name appeared.
“I didn’t approve those.”
Three approvals had been made from Dominic’s corporate login.
Dates when he was traveling.
One while we were in Maine.
I remembered the trip.
Dominic had left his laptop at home.
Eleanor had a key to our house.
“She knew my password,” he whispered.
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“She handled company systems.”
Of course she did.
Then security pulled device records.
Two approvals came from Eleanor’s office computer.
One came from a laptop registered to Chloe.
Dominic’s credentials had been used without his knowledge.
That did not make him innocent of everything.
But this part belonged to someone else.
Then Dad’s compliance director brought in another file.
A payment from Vale Crown to Moretti Architectural Development.
$3.2 million.
Supposedly for completed renovations at one of our coastal hotels.
Except the hotel had never been renovated.
Dad looked at the invoice.
I watched his expression harden.
“Who certified completion?”
The signature belonged to a Vale Crown project manager named Michael Trent.
I knew Michael.
He had attended my wedding.
Dad trusted him.
Then Caroline quietly said:
May you like
“Michael Trent is Eleanor Moretti’s brother.”
My mother-in-law’s family had apparently found a much larger source of money than a wedding budget.
