Vicky drags the ledger closer, and the marked page catches the desk lamp. Toni’s phone screen glows beside it, the account numbers lining up with names and dates. It is not a hit list. It is a payment trail.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
These aren’t targets. They are payouts, routed through Dad’s hidden accounts.
Toni traces one line with a fingertip. Her name sits in the beneficiary column, repeated enough to look deliberate, never accidental. The room tightens around that detail.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
Someone wants it to look like you are taking money off the books.
Vicky flips to the earlier marked pages, matching the same code across weeks of entries. The pattern points upward, toward Don’s private accounts, then back down to Toni as the convenient face on every transfer.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
If we can prove this chain, you clear your name. If we cannot, it is a trap built to make you the fall girl.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prove Toni’s innocence through the payment trail
✓ Quest Accepted
Decide whether to hide the ledger or confront the evidence
“Of course im the fall guy for an embezzlement scheme! If we can't prove im innocent dad wont just hurt me, he'll kill me!”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
Antonia "Toni" Capozzi
Of course I am the fall guy for an embezzlement scheme. If we cannot prove I am innocent, Dad will not just hurt me, he will kill me.
Vicky goes still, then reaches across the desk and covers Toni’s hand for a beat, her thumb pressing once, hard, like an anchor.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
Then we do not let it sit with him. We make this real enough that nobody can shrug it off.
She taps the ledger, then Toni’s phone, then the column of names. The deliberate pattern seems to stare back at them from the page.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
You were supposed to act embarrassed, right. Fine. That part buys us a pause. After that, we choose whether to hide this or shove it in front of them.
Outside the bedroom door, the house stays quiet. Inside, the two sisters lean over the proof together, the next move hanging between them.
“Maybe we can ask Grandpa Luca for help? He's literally The Devil, he knows all about framing people, surely he knows how to stop someone from being framed.”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Antonia "Toni" Capozzi
Grandpa Luca. If anybody knows how a frame job works, it is him.
Toni glances from the ledger to Vicky, then back to the names. The pattern looks less like accounting now and more like a map someone wants hidden.
Antonia "Toni" Capozzi
Could we ask Grandpa Luca for help?
Vicky’s brows lift. She does not answer right away, because the idea lands where the fear lives, but her eyes track the ledger instead of dismissing it.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
Maybe. But if we go to Luca with this too early, we hand him the whole mess. He will want proof, not a theory.
She pulls one marked page closer and catches her finger under a tiny gap in the inked pattern. A second set of numbers peeks through, half-covered, like a route being repeated on purpose.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
Look. Whoever did this reused a payment trail. That is our opening. Not Luca yet, maybe, but someone with records we can compare.
Outside, the house stays quiet. On the desk, the ledger, the phone, and the hidden numbers sit in a sharper arrangement now, as if they are daring Toni to choose a direction.
“I ask Vicky who has the records”
SUCCESS (Great Investigation, rolled +0)
Antonia "Toni" Capozzi
Who has the records we can compare this against?
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
Accounting copies. Old access logs too, if we can get them. Tommy, maybe one of Don's office files, or a backup he keeps off the books.
Vicky straightens the page and taps the hidden column with one finger, the deliberate names line catching the lamp light like a trail only she can read.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
Tommy is the likeliest source, but anything from Don's records would settle it faster.
The answer changes the ledger from a suspicion into a search plan. Now they have a target, and a reason to move before anyone else notices the pattern.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
If you want, we check Tommy's records first, then decide whether this stays hidden or goes straight to Don.
“Tommy brought me the ledger, im fairly certain he's trying to help us. We can ask him.”
SUCCESS (Great Investigation, rolled +0)
Antonia "Toni" Capozzi
Tommy brought me the ledger, I’m fairly certain he’s trying to help us. We can ask him.
Vicky’s hand stills on the page. The lamp throws the hidden column of numbers between them like a clean seam in torn fabric.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
That would be smarter than forcing it alone. If Tommy is helping, I want to know why he picked you.
She closes the ledger halfway, not to hide it, but to keep the pattern from spilling everywhere at once.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
He does not act generous for free. So either he is scared, or he has his own angle.
Antonia "Toni" Capozzi
The numbers line up too neatly to be an accident.
Vicky looks up at Toni, steady and practical, then slides the book closer so both sisters can reach it.
Victoria "Vicky" Capozzi
We ask him together, then. If he gives us the records, we compare them. If he does not, we know where the wall is.
Quest Complete
Decide whether to hide the ledger or confront the evidence
Skill Upgrade: Investigation Great→Superb