Chapter 5 - The Forged Permission
By sunrise, Santiago had three teams working without Matteo’s knowledge.
One followed Dr. Voss.
One audited Sophia’s medical records.
The third examined every camera and network line inside the mansion.
Ruby stayed with Sophia.
This time Santiago asked her to.
Not as an employee.
As the person Sophia wanted there.
At nine that morning, Tomas walked into the study carrying a binder.
“We have a problem.”
Santiago did not look up.
“I have several.”
“This one has your signature.”
He placed a medical authorization on the desk.
The document allowed Dr. Voss to make medication adjustments without additional family consent during periods of “behavioral instability.”
At the bottom:
Santiago Moretti.
Santiago stared.
“I never signed this.”
Tomas slid over another page.
“The digital certificate is yours.”
“That doesn’t mean I signed it.”
“No.”
“Who had access?”
Tomas hesitated.
“Three people.”
“Me.”
“You.”
“My attorney.”
“Yes.”
“And Matteo.”
Tomas nodded.
Santiago leaned back.
His entire life after their father’s death had been chaos.
Contracts.
Funerals.
War.
Sophia’s breakdown.
Matteo had handled paperwork because Santiago trusted him.
He had called it delegation.
Now it looked like surrender.
Ruby entered without knocking.
Santiago almost snapped at her.
Then remembered she no longer worked for him.
“What?”
“Sophia wants to see the authorization.”
“No.”
Ruby stared at him.
He caught himself.
“Ask her if she wants to.”
Ruby’s expression softened slightly.
“She already asked.”
Sophia came in behind her.
Santiago turned the page around.
Sophia read every line.
Her face changed when she reached one date.
She tapped it hard.
“What?” Santiago asked.
She signed.
Ruby translated.
“That was the week after the funeral.”
Santiago knew.
Sophia continued.
“She says Dr. Voss told her you approved everything.”
Santiago felt the shame physically.
“I didn’t.”
Sophia watched him.
“I didn’t,” he repeated.
She signed.
Ruby translated.
“She believes you now.”
Those words hurt more than accusation.
Because they meant there had been years when she did not.
Tomas cleared his throat.
“We also found billing anomalies.”
“How much?”
“Not just money.”
He turned to another section.
“Every time Sophia showed increased engagement in therapy, Voss changed the notation within forty-eight hours.”
“Changed it to what?”
“Regression. Agitation. Paranoid fixation. Noncompliance.”
Ruby’s eyes narrowed.
“In other words, every sign of recovery became proof she was worse.”
Tomas nodded.
Santiago stared at the pages.
A perfect system.
If Sophia did nothing, she was unreachable.
If she resisted, she was unstable.
If she communicated, she was fixated.
Every path led back to the same conclusion.
Do not listen to her.
Santiago’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Santiago Moretti.”
A calm male voice spoke.
“You’re asking questions that should have stayed buried.”
Santiago recognized it.
Dr. Voss.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere your men aren’t.”
Santiago looked at Tomas.
Tomas was already tracing.
“You treated my sister like a prisoner.”
“No.”
Voss sounded almost offended.
“I treated a traumatized adolescent whose family terrified her.”
“You forged my authorization.”
Silence.
Then Voss sighed.
“You really have no idea what happened in your own house.”
“Enlighten me.”
“Ask Ruby Brennan.”
Ruby went still.
Voss continued.
“Ask her what she stole from Lakeview.”
Santiago looked at Ruby.
“What did you steal?”
Her face drained.
Voss laughed softly through the phone.
“And while you’re at it, ask her why her brother disappeared the same night.”
The line went dead.
Santiago lowered the phone.
Ruby’s eyes were full of fear now.
Not for herself.
For something she had spent three years protecting.
“Ruby.”
She swallowed.
“I stole a video.”
“What video?”
She looked at Sophia.
Sophia closed her eyes.
Ruby whispered.
May you like
“The only recording I know of where your sister speaks.”
