Chapter 8 - WHAT THE BAT COST
Brandon was charged with aggravated menacing and child endangerment. The video made a public trial unlikely to help him, and he eventually accepted a plea requiring probation, intensive anger-management treatment, community service, and a five-year protective order prohibiting contact with Jamie.
The financial investigation continued separately. Brandon surrendered his vacation property and investment accounts toward restitution. Victor entered a civil settlement returning the remaining funds he controlled and permanently relinquished his position as trustee.
Rocco was not charged for striking Brandon. The prosecutor determined that the intervention occurred while Brandon still presented an immediate threat to Jamie. Rocco felt relief, but not pride. The slap was not the moment he wanted Jamie to remember.
He wanted his son to remember the arms that lifted him afterward.
Moretti Development appointed an independent chair and added employee representatives to its board. Rocco remained chief executive but surrendered the unilateral powers Victor once encouraged him to inherit. If the company was going to survive, it would not rebuild the same throne under a younger man.
No employees lost their jobs. The bridge facility was replaced with conventional financing once the audit established the company’s healthy underlying contracts. The Tampa losses were separated from operating funds, and the trust began recovering the stolen money.
Jamie’s recovery moved more slowly.
For several weeks, he refused to sit at the head or end of any table. He chose chairs nearest to doors and flinched when someone moved behind him. Rocco found a child therapist who never forced him to describe the barbecue before he was ready.
One evening, Jamie climbed onto the kitchen counter while Rocco prepared dinner.
“Did I take Theo’s money?” he asked.
“No.”
“Grandpa said I was stealing his family.”
Rocco turned off the stove and faced him. “Theo is your cousin. He is not responsible for what Brandon did, and you are not responsible for what was put in Theo’s name.”
“Do I own part of the company now?”
“You are protected by a trust your great-grandmother created. That does not mean you owe the company your childhood.”
Jamie considered this. “What if I don’t want it?”
“Then when you are old enough, you will decide what to do. Nobody will raise a bat, threaten you, or make you earn a seat before you choose.”
Jamie looked toward the dining table. “Can I sit in your chair tonight?”
Rocco pulled it out for him. “You can sit anywhere you feel safe.”
May you like
Jamie chose Rocco’s chair, and Rocco ate beside him on a folding stool.
It was the best seat he had ever been given.
