Chapter 14
The Rizzano board meeting lasted six hours.
Dominic had expected old loyalties to save him.
Some men tried.
They argued the family should not destroy itself over private messages and a wedding scandal.
Alessandro let them speak.
Then Claire’s outside investigators presented the evidence.
The camera request.
The attorney referral.
The message thread.
The attempted payment to Rosalie.
The board did not need to decide whether Dominic was a good cousin.
It needed to decide whether an executive who engineered a personal crisis to destabilize the chief executive could remain in authority.
The vote removed him.
Not unanimously.
But decisively.
Alessandro also announced changes that angered many of the same men.
Independent compliance would remain.
Legitimate companies would no longer be used to solve private family disputes.
Security personnel assigned to Livia answered to a professional protection director, not senior relatives.
Household staff could report child-safety concerns without going through family hierarchy.
One older relative called it weakness.
Alessandro looked at him.
“No.”
He thought of Rosalie being told orders supposedly came from him.
“It’s what happens when people are allowed to tell me I’m wrong.”
Dominic’s witness-tampering investigation remained active, but he no longer had access to the company or estate.
Bianca later accepted a plea that included probation, mandatory counseling, community service, and a continued protective order keeping her away from Livia.
Some people called it too light.
Others called it excessive.
Alessandro stopped caring about punishment as theater.
Bianca could no longer reach his daughter.
Dominic could no longer use the family structure to protect himself.
Those consequences mattered more to him than spectacle.
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There was one final thing Alessandro still had to change.
Himself.
