Chapter 4 - The Secret Dossier
Inside the back of the tinted, leather-lined SUV, the city lights blurred past the windows as they drove toward the private Romano estate overlooking the river.
Clara sat wrapped in Matteo's heavy coat, breathing in the scent of cedarwood and expensive tobacco. Her hands had stopped shaking, but her mind was racing with a thousand terrifying questions.
"Why were you at that restaurant tonight, Mr. Romano?" Clara asked, looking across at the powerful man sitting calmly opposite her. "Men like you don't just happen to sit behind abusive men in fine dining spots."
Matteo leaned back against the leather seat, pulling a thick manila folder from the built-in desk safe and tossing it onto the seat beside her.
"I wasn't following you, Clara," Matteo said quietly. "I was following Tyler. He’s been laundering stolen venture capital money through your father’s struggling architecture firm for eighteen months."
Clara gasped, pulling the folder open. Inside were bank records, encrypted text logs, and forged legal documents bearing her father’s forged signature.
"Tyler told me my father’s business was failing because of bad investments..." Clara stammered, tears springing to her eyes as the horrifying truth washed over her. "He said he was paying my father’s debts out of the kindness of his heart!"
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"Tyler created those debts himself," Matteo revealed, his voice dark and heavy. "He set your father up to take the fall for a massive federal fraud investigation. He trapped you into an engagement to ensure your family would never speak out against him."
👉 Read Part 5 to see Tyler’s desperate attempt to destroy Clara’s father.
