Page 14 of Forever We Embrace: The Later Years
“The Hearthstone investigation never completely closed,” Thane says. “Ward’s arrest exposed buyers, police corruption, and several local operators. We seized the records we couldreach, but much of the financial structure disappeared before we could freeze it.”
“You thought Ward controlled it,” I say.
“We knew he controlled part of it,” Thane corrects. “We suspected he had help, but we couldn’t prove how much. The financial systems were too old and too broad to have been created solely for his operation.”
Luca’s finger tightens around Grayson’s beneath the blanket. “Ward didn’t build it.”
“No,” Thane says. “The entities you’re describing existed before he became involved with Hearthstone and before he joined the police force. He gained access to an existing system and adapted one part of it to his jurisdiction.”
Maceo’s pen stops when Thane says the structure predates Ward. Blake reaches across the desk and folds his hand over Maceo’s writing hand, lowering both the pen and Maceo’s clenched fingers to the page. Maceo turns his palm beneath Blake’s and holds on.
“What was the system built for?” Blake asks.
“Placement activity across several states,” Thane says. “Property acquisition, donor movement, transportation, and payments routed through charitable fronts. Ward used one part of it. We never identified who designed the larger structure.”
The lines on the chalkboard remain exactly where Lorenzo placed them, but their meaning changes. We came into the room believing Victor and Dorian had found Ward’s abandoned machinery. Now we know Ward inherited it too.
“Does the current activity prove the original operator is involved again?” Maceo asks.
“No. It proves someone with knowledge of the old structure is using parts of it now. That could be Victor, Dorian, someone advising them, or someone further removed. I’m not giving you a conclusion the records don’t support.”
“What do you need from us?” Nicholas asks.
Thane gives him instructions for transferring copies of the current filings and asks that no one contact the registered agents directly. He will compare the names against sealed material from the original case and coordinate with Nicholas once his team determines what they can legally access.
The call ends without a name.
Luca remains focused on the board, his hands still beneath the blanket. I move behind the sofa and place my palms on the back cushion on either side of him without touching him.
“Do you want me close?”
He leans his head back until it rests against my stomach. I bend over him and press my mouth to his hair while his fingers remain linked with Grayson’s.
“Ward is gone,” Luca says. “But the structure that made him possible is still there.”
“Yes,” I answer. “That is what we know tonight.”
Nicholas closes the laptop while Lorenzo removes the final page from the board and places it beside the others. No one speaks until Maceo asks whether the federal team can access the current filings without alerting Victor.
“Thane said he would coordinate through Nicholas,” I remind him. “Until we hear otherwise, we don’t contact anyone tied to the old entities, and we don’t change how we deal with Victor or Dorian.”
Blake studies the map. “They can’t know we connected their proposal to Hearthstone.”
Luca turns slightly beneath the blanket. “And Ember House?”
“Nothing changes there tonight,” Maceo says. “We don’t warn staff about a conclusion we don’t have, and we don’t frighten residents with an investigation that may never reach the sanctuary.”
Grayson looks toward the charities grouped on the left side of the board. “I’ll keep the dates I already have. Nicholas can tell me which future changes matter to the financial trail.”
I nod. “Then we wait for Thane to tell us what he can prove.”
Nicholas and Lorenzo leave after copying the records Thane requested. When I return to the study, the others are still there. Blake has moved onto the sofa beside Luca, Maceo sits on its wide arm with Blake’s hand resting against his knee, and Grayson has folded the unused half of the blanket over Luca’s feet.
I erase Ward’s name from the center of the chalkboard. The surrounding companies and trusts remain connected exactly as they were before the call, but the empty space no longer belongs to him. I draw a question mark where his name had been and set the chalk down.
Luca watches me return to them. He lifts the blanket instead of asking me to move closer, making room between himself and Blake. I sit carefully, and he settles one leg across mine while Blake remains pressed to his other side.
Maceo reaches down from the arm of the sofa and runs his fingers once through my hair. Grayson leans against my shoulder from behind, his cheek resting there as we look at the board together.
