Chapter 6 - The Paper Trail
Back inside the surveillance vehicle, the atmosphere was suffocating. Marcus had laptop screens glowing with forensic financial data, telephone transcripts, and encrypted bank transfers.
"Everything she said checks out," Marcus reported, typing furiously. "Carter has been playing both sides like a concert pianist. He collects two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a quarter from Victoria’s offshore LLC to keep Evelyn pinned down in Boston, isolated and terrified. Simultaneously, he’s been draining Evelyn’s personal trust fund—the one her grandmother left her—to cover his gambling and bad real estate debts."
"Where is he now?" I asked, staring at the street map on the central console.
"At his law office on State Street," Marcus replied. "His partners have no idea. But Adrian... the legal knot here is horrific. Under Massachusetts law, because Carter is listed on the birth certificate and married to the mother, he has presumptive paternity. If we file a motion to challenge, Victoria gets notified automatically under the trust covenants your father established."
"My father's trust covenants," I murmured, a memory sparking.
My father, Lorenzo Moretti, had been a hard man, but he wasn't a monster like my mother. Before he died, he had established an irrevocable family trust that superseded all corporate bylaws.
"Marcus, pull the original charter of the Lorenzo Moretti Foundation," I ordered.
Marcus frowned but complied. Within two minutes, the scanned parchment of my father’s final will appeared on the screen.
"Read section twelve," I said.
Marcus scrolled down, his eyes scanning the dense legal jargon. Suddenly, he paused. His head snapped up. "Any direct descendant of Lorenzo Moretti, born in or out of wedlock, whose paternity is concealed or manipulated by an officer or legal representative of the estate..."
"...forfeits that representative’s right to practice law, mandates immediate federal investigation for grand larceny, and triggers an automatic transfer of fifty-one percent of the family’s holding company directly to the heirs," I finished the sentence for him.
My father had known what Victoria was. He had built a fail-safe into the family empire specifically to prevent her from disinheriting or weaponizing future generations.
"Thomas Carter signed that charter as a junior witness twelve years ago," Marcus breathed, a grin finally breaking across his rugged face. "He didn't just commit fraud, Adrian. He committed federal wire fraud against a multi-billion-dollar trust."
"Get the U.S. Attorney on the line," I commanded. "And call our medical team. I want a private, certified paternity test conducted within the hour. No courts. No public records. Just undeniable biological proof."
"And your mother?" Marcus asked quietly.
May you like
I looked out the tinted window at the gray Boston sky. "My mother has ruled this family through terror for forty years. Today, her reign ends."
***
