Three-year-old Owen was shoved into the deep koi pond even though Celeste knew he could not swim. / Chapter 14 / 56

Chapter 14 - The Secret of Aegis-Seven

By 5:00 AM, the manor was secure again. Celeste had been taken into custody by county investigators for reckless endangerment and filing a false emergency petition. Julian was under guard, awaiting transport to the federal prosecutor’s office.

Valentina sat beside Owen’s bed. The little boy had rolled over, his tiny hand resting against her forearm. His fever had fully broken; his skin was warm and dry. She kissed his forehead, her heart aching with the ferocious, primal protectiveness that only a mother knew.

Rebecca knocked softly on the open door frame. “Valentina. Nolan cracked Julian’s private encrypted drive.”

Valentina gently disengaged her arm, adjusted Owen’s blanket, and stepped out into the hallway, pulling the door partially shut.

“What did he find?”

“Julian wasn't just working for Victor out of debt,” Rebecca said, handing her a decrypted financial summary. “He was acting as a double broker. He had access to Matteo’s private correspondence from the last three months of his life.”

Valentina followed Rebecca into the library, where Nolan had several servers running diagnostic scans on Matteo’s personal ledger.

“Look at this,” Nolan said, highlighting an offshore trust registered in the Cayman Islands under the code name *Aegis-Seven*. “Matteo didn't leave the majority voting shares of the Morello logistics empire to Victor or to the board. In fact, he didn't even leave them directly to you.”

Valentina frowned. “What are you talking about? The will gave me fifty-one percent control upon his death.”

“That was the public probate will,” Rebecca explained grimly. “A decoy meant to draw fire. Matteo knew that whoever held direct legal title to the voting shares would become an immediate target for assassination by the syndicate syndicates within the family network. So he created an automated blind trust.”

“Who controls the trust?” Valentina asked.

“Owen,” Nolan said. “Matteo transferred ninety percent of the actual asset equity into Aegis-Seven, with full vesting occurring on Owen’s fourth birthday—which is next month. Until then, the trust operates under an autonomous lock. But there’s a lethal failsafe clause.”

Nolan clicked a key, expanding a paragraph written in Matteo’s distinct legal phrasing.

*“Clause 14-B: In the event of the legal incapacitation or death of minor beneficiary Owen Morello prior to vesting, the entirety of Aegis-Seven equity shall immediately dissolve and revert to the secondary designated executive of the Morello Foundation.”*