Chapter 9 - PHOEBE’S NAME ON THE MONEY
I stared at the document for a full minute.
Phoebe?
The woman who helped me prepare evidence?
The person waiting across the ballroom?
My best friend since college?
No.
I called her.
She arrived at Rachel’s office twenty minutes later.
I placed the record on the table.
Her face went white.
“I can explain.”
Everyone says that right before an explanation becomes necessary.
“What is Halcyon Advisory?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s registered under your name.”
“I never registered it.”
Rachel asked:
“Have you ever signed formation paperwork for a business?”
Phoebe froze.
Then:
“Last year.”
My stomach dropped.
A former boyfriend had asked her to co-sign documents for what he called a consulting startup.
She withdrew before operations began.
Or believed she had.
Name:
Eric Dane.
Rachel searched.
Eric Dane worked for Moretti Capital.
Compliance operations.
Phoebe covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
She had been used too.
Halcyon received Luca’s $1.8 million.
Then distributed most of it to three entities.
One purchased Moretti Capital debt.
One paid investigators.
One funded a litigation reserve.
The remaining $240,000 sat untouched.
Why route money through a company under Phoebe’s name?
Plausible leverage.
If I escaped Luca, my closest friend could suddenly appear connected to his finances.
He could claim we conspired.
That explained why Wendy sounded so confident.
They had backup stories.
Layers.
Then Phoebe remembered Eric repeatedly asking questions about me.
My family.
My shares.
Whether I trusted Luca.
She thought he was making conversation.
He was gathering information.
Her face collapsed.
“I brought him around you.”
“You didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“I know.”
But guilt was not proof of responsibility.
We documented everything.
Phoebe cooperated.
Bank records showed she never accessed Halcyon’s accounts.
Never received money.
Never knew the company remained active.
Eric had used electronic documents she signed during formation.
Again:
Signatures.
Trust.
Convenience.
People betting nobody reads paperwork.
Then Eric vanished from Moretti Capital.
Not disappeared.
He resigned.
His attorney contacted investigators.
He wanted immunity discussions.
That told us he had more.
Then Rachel received one encrypted file through proper counsel channels.
An internal Moretti presentation.
Title:
HARTWELL INTEGRATION STRATEGY.
Slide 7:
Relationship pathway: Luca / Jessi.
Slide 8:
Proxy pathway.
Slide 9:
Reputational contingency.
Slide 10:
Friend-association contingency — PHOEBE HART.
I felt physically sick.
Then came Slide 11.
Pregnancy contingency.
I stopped breathing.
Rachel looked at me.
I had suffered a miscarriage four months earlier.
May you like
Luca had told me it was “probably for the best” because the wedding planning was already stressful.
The Morettis had apparently been making plans around a child I never knew they were tracking.
