Chapter 8 - Damon’s Signature
Vivian placed the document in front of him.
“Explain.”
Damon stared at his signature.
“I signed hundreds of things Dad gave me.”
“That isn’t an explanation.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Then prove it.”
Damon looked wounded.
Vivian refused to rescue him from that feeling.
Trust had already been damaged too many times.
Rebecca examined the paperwork.
Several transfers bore Damon’s electronic authorization.
If Frank had used Damon as a shield, Damon could face serious consequences.
“I need my own lawyer,” Damon said.
“Yes,” Rebecca replied.
Vivian appreciated that he did not ask her to protect him.
Over the following weeks, Damon cooperated with investigators.
Emails showed Frank’s assistants routinely presented documents in large batches.
That did not automatically excuse Damon.
He had signed them.
He had failed to read them.
He had benefited from the system.
For the first time in his life, Damon began confronting the difference between innocence and irresponsibility.
“I kept telling myself Dad handled everything,” he admitted one evening.
Vivian listened.
“That way, if something was ugly, I could pretend I didn’t know.”
“Like the birthday game?”
Damon nodded.
“That too.”
Leo entered carrying two cups of lemonade.
One for Vivian.
One for Damon.
Damon smiled.
“Thanks, buddy.”
Leo hesitated.
Then sat beside him.
Their relationship was rebuilding in inches.
Damon no longer demanded affection.
He earned moments.
He attended Leo’s school presentation.
He apologized without excuses.
He stopped correcting Leo when the boy cried.
One afternoon, Leo asked him the question Damon had feared.
“Do you still think I’m weak?”
Damon crouched.
“No.”
“Grandpa does.”
“Grandpa is wrong.”
“Why did you laugh?”
Damon’s eyes filled.
“Because I was being weak.”
Leo considered that.
Then he hugged him.
Not because Damon deserved instant forgiveness.
Because Leo chose to.
Vivian watched from the doorway.
Later, Rebecca brought good news.
Evidence suggested Frank had deliberately concealed the nature of the transactions from Damon.
But another discovery was worse.
Second Branch Holdings contained money that did not belong to Frank.
Pension funds from a Rossetti subsidiary had been improperly redirected.
People’s retirement savings.
Now the scandal was no longer a private dynasty dispute.
Employees could have been harmed.
Damon looked sick.
“My name is on this company.”
“Then help fix it,” Vivian said.
He did.
Damon voluntarily froze distributions that would have benefited him.
He authorized an independent audit.
He supported restoring the missing funds before protecting family assets.
Frank called him that night.
Damon put the call on speaker.
“You’re giving away your son’s future,” Frank said.
Damon looked at Leo’s drawing on the refrigerator.
“No. I’m trying to give him one.”
“You’ll regret this.”
“I regret plenty already.”
“You think Vivian will stay when the money disappears?”
Damon looked at his wife.
Their marriage was still uncertain.
He answered anyway.
“That’s her decision.”
Vivian noticed the change.
Old Damon would have claimed her.
New Damon was learning that love could not be controlled.
Frank hung up.
Two days later, investigators searched Rossetti Tower.
News cameras arrived.
The family scandal became public.
Vivian shielded the children from most coverage.
But one headline reached Leo at school.
Another child asked whether his grandfather was a criminal.
Leo came home silent.
Vivian found him beneath his blanket.
“Want to talk?”
“No.”
She sat beside him anyway.
After several minutes he asked, “Can I change my last name?”
Vivian’s heart tightened.
“Why?”
“Everybody knows Rossetti.”
She thought carefully.
“A name can carry history. But it doesn’t decide who you are.”
“Grandpa says it does.”
“Grandpa says many things.”
Leo looked at her.
“What does my name mean?”
Vivian smiled.
“Whatever you make it mean.”
That night, Leo took out his drawing.
He wrote something beneath the two children.
Vivian read it.
LEO + OLIVIA. NO MORE GAME.
And the next morning, Olivia arrived with news that would change everything again.
Frank had contacted her directly.
May you like
He wanted to meet her.
Alone.
