Chapter 12
The trust audit lasted almost a year.
Some Bellandi assets were clean enough to preserve.
Others were sold.
Some companies had to repay improper transfers.
The family foundation entered a corrective agreement with the state attorney general’s charities division.
Restricted charitable funds had been used temporarily to support Seraphine’s development commitments.
Those funds were restored with penalties.
The corporate trustee cut off several cousins from management contracts.
Three sued.
They lost.
Rocco watched from the outside.
That was harder than prison for him in some ways.
He could see decisions being made without him.
He could not stop them.
Adeline told him:
“That’s what accountability feels like before it becomes maturity.”
He looked at her.
“You rehearsed that?”
“No. I married you. Sentences like that form naturally.”
He almost laughed.
Then federal investigators used the trust audit to examine older Bellandi operations.
Rocco’s criminal world did not remain untouched.
Money trails connected several legitimate entities to illegal gambling proceeds and extortion-related cash.
Seraphine’s fraud exposed him too.
Exactly as she had warned.
But her warning had been incomplete.
The birth did not make Rocco lose everything.
May you like
His own crimes did.
There was a difference.
