Evelyn touched the top envelope but didn’t pick it up.
“You could have called me.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told Adrian.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Clara’s eyes filled, though her voice remained steady.
“Because I was ashamed. I had worked for the Moretti family for twenty years. I told myself Mrs. Moretti was protecting everyone. Eventually, I had to admit that I was protecting my position instead.”
Evelyn looked at her for a long moment.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you.”
“You don’t have to.”
The words settled more gently than an apology would have.
Clara turned toward me. “There’s something else.”
She removed a narrow envelope from the case.
“This was in Daniel Vale’s handwriting. Mrs. Moretti never saw it.”
I opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Adrian,
Your father kept a private ledger apart from the company accounts. I found it after his death and gave it to Victoria for safekeeping. It contains the names of men who used the family’s charitable foundations to move money without your father’s knowledge. Some of those men remain connected to Moretti Holdings.
