"Your husband discovered discrepancies in Harbor Crest's shipping manifests," Anthony told her, once his investigation had progressed enough to share concrete findings. "Cargo weights that didn't match invoiced amounts, routes that deviated from their official filings in ways that suggested additional, unrecorded stops. He apparently began keeping his own private notes, cross-referencing the discrepancies, likely trying to understand the pattern before deciding what to do with what he'd found."
"The missing notebook," Sarah said quietly. "The police said it wasn't in his coat when they returned his things."
"Because Castellano's people took it," Anthony said. "Before the accident, not after. My sources indicate Daniel was under surveillance for nearly three weeks before his death, once someone at Harbor Crest noticed his private inquiries into the shipping records. The car accident wasn't an accident at all, Sarah. His brakes were tampered with, on a stretch of highway specifically chosen because the resulting crash would look consistent with weather conditions that night."
Sarah sat with this confirmation, grief and vindication tangled together in a way that left her simultaneously devastated and, for the first time in two years, genuinely certain about what had actually happened rather than trapped in unproven, dismissed suspicion.
"I want justice," she said finally. "Whatever that actually means, given everything you've just told me about who's responsible."
Anthony's expression carried a weight that told Sarah, before he even spoke, exactly how complicated that justice might prove to secure. "Castellano operates independently, but he maintains alliances with several other families along the eastern seaboard," he said. "Moving against him directly risks destabilizing agreements I've spent years carefully building specifically to move my own organization away from exactly this kind of violence. I need you to understand, Sarah, that pursuing this properly is going to take time and considerable care, not a single dramatic confrontation."
"I understand," Sarah said. "I've waited two years already. I can wait a little longer, if it means actually getting the truth acknowledged properly, rather than simply accepting whatever quiet, dangerous version of justice might feel satisfying in the moment."
Chapter 3 - Vanessa's Real Motive
It was nearly six weeks after that conversation, during the same period Anthony's investigation into Castellano proceeded carefully behind the scenes, that Sarah first began noticing something troubling about Vanessa Bellini's presence in the mansion — a pattern of behavior considerably more calculated than simple entitled cruelty toward household staff.
Vanessa had grown increasingly attentive to Anthony's private study, Sarah noticed, finding reasons to linger near the room during hours she knew he typically reviewed business correspondence, and on several occasions, Sarah had glimpsed her taking photographs of documents left visible on his desk, quickly concealing her phone whenever anyone else entered the room.
Sarah reported this to Evelyn carefully, uncertain whether the observation represented genuine concern or simply her own growing suspicion of a woman who had struck her without hesitation weeks earlier.
"I've noticed similar things," Evelyn admitted, once Sarah shared her observations. "I've said nothing to Mr. Moretti because I have no proof, only instinct, and instinct alone isn't something a man in his position can act on without risking considerable embarrassment if I'm wrong."
"What do we do," Sarah asked.
"We watch carefully, and we document what we observe, exactly the way you're already doing," Evelyn said. "And we wait for proof substantial enough to actually matter."
That proof arrived considerably sooner than either of them expected, roughly two weeks later, when Sarah, cleaning the study during Anthony's absence at a business meeting, discovered a small, sophisticated recording device concealed behind a bookshelf, positioned specifically to capture conversations conducted at his desk.
She brought it directly to Evelyn, who examined the device with a grim, knowing expression.