Chapter 10 - THE RESERVE WAS A BRIDGE LOAN THEY NEVER INTENDED TO CALL A LOAN
The central secret sat in an email chain between Preston, Dorinda, and Reeves Design & Build’s chief financial officer.
Subject:
Q3 BRIDGE.
CFO:
We need approximately 275–325k to cover payroll, insurance, and two critical subs until Hamilton draw funds clear. Bank will not expand revolver without updated guaranty.
Preston:
I will handle family liquidity.
CFO:
Loan or equity?
Preston:
Neither on company books initially.
The CFO objected.
Need documentation.
Dorinda entered the thread.
We can route temporary household reserve through RFS and reimburse company operating expenses. Once Hamilton pays, company replenishes the reserve before the birth.
There.
Temporary.
In their minds.
Not theft forever.
A bridge.
Dad would fund a pregnancy reserve.
The reserve would temporarily pay business expenses.
Then Reeves Design & Build would repay before the baby arrived.
No one would be poorer.
No one would know.
Except the authorization was false.
The purpose was false.
The company use was undisclosed.
And repayment depended on a client paying a disputed invoice on time.
The CFO replied:
I am not comfortable coding household funds as company bridge without lender/accountant review.
Preston:
Then do not code them until received.
The CFO did not respond.
Later testimony showed he refused to participate further.
Good.
No companywide conspiracy.
Dorinda then emailed Preston privately:
Orlando has spent more than that securing Camille’s life. He will never feel it.
Preston:
Camille will.
Dorinda:
Only if you tell her before it is restored.
Preston:
She hates when Dad funds us.
Dorinda:
Then stop calling it funding us. It is continuity for his grandchild.
That was the secret.
They did not plan to permanently steal $300,000.
They planned to borrow it without permission, through a false pregnancy authorization, because Dorinda believed repayment would erase the dishonesty.
Preston knew Camille would refuse.
That was why the document carried my signature without asking.
And that was why he blocked the door.
I had the only complete folder.
Dad was minutes away.
If I left with it, the bridge disappeared.
Payroll pressure returned.
The bank saw the real condition.
Preston’s company might survive.
But his image as the man who never needed Castellani money would not.
That mattered to him more than he admitted.
The rolling pin was Dorinda’s rage.
The blocked door was Preston’s desperation.
No mastermind behind them.
No secret crime family war.
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Two people had convinced themselves that temporary deception became acceptable if repayment arrived before discovery.
Then I found the paper too early.
