Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER EVERYONE CALLED A THIEF
“She accused me of stealing jewelry before anything was even missing?”
Grace stared at the statement on Daniel's computer.
Her hands were shaking.
Camille Whitmore hadn't merely threatened to blame her.
She had prepared the accusation in advance.
Four days before the auction, Camille had already arranged for Grace to become the perfect suspect.
A poor housekeeper.
An expensive mother to support.
Access to valuable jewelry.
And now a bank account containing $6.8 million.
Grace could imagine the headlines.
Maid Steals Millions From Wealthy Employer.
Nobody would mention her bleeding feet.
Nobody would mention Camille's threats.
They would simply see a woman who needed money.
“Mr. Romano,” she said, “I want to resign.”
Alessandro looked up from the desk.
“No.”
“I can't stay here while your family decides whether I'm a criminal.”
“Grace, nobody is accusing you.”
“Camille already did.”
He fell silent.
Grace pulled the borrowed slippers closer beneath her chair.
“I've worked since I was sixteen. I've cleaned offices, served tables, and taken overnight shifts when Mom needed medicine.”
Her voice trembled.
“I have never stolen anything.”
Alessandro came around the desk.
“I believe you.”
“You didn't believe your brother.”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
His expression changed.
Grace covered her mouth.
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't apologize.”
He looked at Sebastian's photograph on the shelf.
“You're right.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Alessandro said something Grace hadn't expected.
“Your employment here will not depend on whether you help me. Your wages are protected while this is investigated. And if you want to leave, I won't stop you.”
Grace studied him.
“Then I want to stay until we find your grandmother.”
He nodded.
“That's your decision.”
Daniel contacted the bank's fraud department and provided the forged identification, account records, and Camille's prepared accusation to the investigating officer.
The account was flagged for review.
But there was a problem.
The deposits had already been routed through several businesses.
Some were described as jewelry-secured loans.
Others appeared to be advance payments for antiques.
None of the records showed that Grace had personally controlled the money.
Yet proving who had controlled it would require cooperation from the institutions involved.
And those institutions had longstanding relationships with Arthur Whitmore.
At three that afternoon, Camille entered Alessandro's office.
She stopped when she saw the accusation on his desk.
“Where did you get that?”
“Sebastian's records.”
“You searched his private files?”
“Did you prepare this statement?”
Camille looked at Grace.
Then at Daniel.
“I'd prefer to discuss this privately.”
“You prepared to accuse my employee of a crime she didn't commit.”
“You don't know that.”
Alessandro's voice hardened.
“Camille.”
She stepped backward.
“Fine. Yes. I signed it.”
Grace felt physically sick.
“Why?”
Camille looked at her.
“Because you were supposed to keep your mouth shut.”
The room went silent.
Camille pressed her lips together.
Then she turned toward Alessandro.
“Do you understand how much money my father has committed to this arrangement?”
“Your father's finances are not my responsibility.”
“They become your responsibility when his lenders start taking property from elderly residents.”
Grace stared at her.
“What elderly residents?”
Camille wiped beneath one eye.
“Whitmore Residential is in trouble. Several facilities are being used as collateral. If the refinancing collapses, hundreds of people could lose their homes.”
“And your solution was to frame Grace?” Alessandro asked.
“I was supposed to arrange a successful auction. That's all.”
“You substituted a necklace.”
“I didn't know where Sebastian had hidden the original!”
Alessandro froze.
“Hidden?”
Camille realized her mistake.
She turned away.
“Ask your brother.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Camille, if you're protecting Arthur—”
“I'm protecting people who have nowhere else to go!”
Her voice broke.
For a moment, she looked genuinely frightened.
Then she straightened her shoulders.
“But you wouldn't understand that, Alessandro. You've never had to choose which disaster you could afford.”
She walked out.
Grace remained seated.
She had hated Camille for what happened on the platform.
She still did.
But now she understood something important.
Camille wasn't simply trying to become wealthy.
She was terrified of losing the wealthy life she'd always known.
And she had decided Grace was an acceptable price to pay for saving it.
An hour later, Sebastian Romano returned to the mansion.
He came through the front entrance carrying a small brown suitcase.
Daniel approached him immediately.
“Mr. Romano, your brother wants to see you.”
Sebastian looked exhausted.
His dark hair was disheveled, and a bruise marked his cheek.
“Good,” he said. “I want to see him too.”
Alessandro met him in the library.
For a long moment, the brothers stood facing one another.
They hadn't spoken properly in nearly six months.
“Where's Grandma?” Alessandro demanded.
“Safe for now.”
“That's not an answer.”
“She's at Whitmore House in Westchester.”
“Arthur Whitmore's private medical residence?”
Sebastian nodded.
“Why would you take her there?”
“Because she asked me to move her after finding out someone had been tampering with her medication.”
Alessandro stared.
“You thought Arthur Whitmore was trustworthy?”
“I thought the facility's independent medical staff would protect her. I was wrong.”
“Then why didn't you bring her home?”
Sebastian looked away.
“Arthur obtained an authorization restricting her visitors. He's challenging her ability to manage her own affairs.”
“On what grounds?”
“Her recent illness.”
“She's been asking for me.”
Sebastian's face tightened.
“I know.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“What have you done?”
Sebastian looked at the floor.
“Something I thought would protect her.”
“Start talking.”
Sebastian sat down.
“Six weeks ago, Grandma discovered that someone was trying to transfer the Three Stars Fund into Whitmore-controlled companies.”
Alessandro frowned.
“She knew?”
“She asked me to remove twelve pieces from her jewelry vault and place them in protected storage until she could review the financial records.”
“Then why did Camille have access?”
“Because Camille was helping with the annual inventory. I trusted her.”
Alessandro stared at him.
“You signed every withdrawal.”
“Yes.”
“And Grandma approved them?”
“She did.”
“Where are the pieces?”
“Eleven are at a private depository. I have the receipts.”
“And the necklace?”
“I kept that in my office with Dad's recording.”
Alessandro felt anger rise.
“You let Camille put a fake necklace on an auction platform!”
“I didn't know she'd switched it until this morning.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“Would you have believed me?”
Alessandro stopped.
Sebastian stood.
“Seventeen years ago, I told you Dad had taken money that wasn't his.”
“You accused him of stealing from elderly people.”
“Because he did.”
“You never showed me proof.”
“I tried.”
Sebastian's voice cracked.
“You threw the envelope into the fireplace.”
Alessandro remembered.
A winter evening.
Their father standing beside the mantel.
Sebastian pleading.
And Alessandro, furious that his younger brother would accuse their father of something so shameful.
He remembered burning the papers.
He had convinced himself he was protecting his family.
Sebastian looked at him.
“I was twenty-two. I thought you'd listen because you were my big brother.”
Alessandro couldn't speak.
Then Sebastian added quietly, “I stopped expecting that a long time ago.”
Grace entered carrying the photograph of Evelyn and Lorenzo.
Sebastian's eyes immediately filled with recognition.
“Evelyn.”
Grace nodded.
“My mother remembers you.”
“She helped me when nobody else would.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Sebastian looked genuinely surprised.
“Tell you what?”
“That you knew my mother.”
He stared at her.
“Grace Miller?”
She nodded.
Sebastian sat down.
“I didn't know Evelyn's daughter worked here.”
Grace remembered Camille personally reviewing her employment application.
Suddenly, her hiring seemed much less accidental.
Sebastian studied the photograph.
“Your mother witnessed the original agreement.”
“Did you really surrender your inheritance?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at Alessandro.
“Because Grandma's money wasn't meant to pay for Dad's mistakes.”
Before he could explain further, Daniel entered with the latest court filing.
Arthur Whitmore had submitted an emergency petition seeking control over Vittoria Romano's financial affairs.
The filing claimed she was incapable of understanding her assets.
Attached was a proposed transfer of the Three Stars Fund.
Its estimated value exceeded sixty million dollars.
The hearing was scheduled for nine the following morning.
Alessandro read the proposed beneficiary.
Whitmore Residential Holdings.
Sebastian leaned forward.
“He's going after the entire fund.”
Daniel nodded.
“And there's something worse.”
He pointed to the medical declaration supporting the petition.
It stated that Vittoria had personally requested Arthur Whitmore to become her financial guardian.
The witness was Camille Whitmore.
And the physician who signed the incapacity assessment was employed by Arthur's company.
Sebastian grabbed the document.
“She told me yesterday she would never give Arthur control.”
Alessandro turned toward Daniel.
“Get an independent doctor and our attorney involved. Now.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Sir, according to the filing, your grandmother already signed the preliminary transfer this morning.”
Alessandro looked at his brother.
Sebastian shook his head.
“No. She wouldn't.”
But beneath Vittoria's signature was a handwritten note.
I understand that refusing this transfer may result in the closure of Willow Creek Residence and three other care facilities.
Grace felt her chest tighten.
May you like
Her mother's home was being used as a bargaining chip.
And Vittoria Romano had been forced to choose between her family's fortune and hundreds of elderly people who depended on it.
