Chapter 3
The voice terminal contained dozens of saved audio files.
Most were harmless.
Old council recordings.
Estate instructions.
Security meetings.
Lorenzo’s voice had been recorded for years.
That alone proved nothing.
Then Claire found the edited files.
Individual words.
Short phrases.
Numbers.
Names.
Approval language.
Thousands of fragments cataloged by sound.
Lorenzo stared at the screen.
His voice had been turned into pieces.
Pieces could be assembled.
Marcus leaned against the console.
“You think I built that?”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Did you?”
“No.”
His answer came easily.
Too easily.
Victoria watched both men.
Her fingers slowly rubbed the edge of one pearl.
Lorenzo noticed.
“Who built it?”
Marcus’s eyes moved toward her.
Victoria’s hand stopped.
Another small betrayal.
She turned sharply.
“Don't look at me.”
Marcus smiled without humor.
“You wanted stability.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“I wanted continuity.”
The distinction mattered to her.
Lorenzo heard it.
Claire continued examining the system.
The first edited voice file was created four years earlier.
Long before Lorenzo’s recent absence.
His eyes narrowed.
“What happened four years ago?”
Anthony answered immediately.
“The Boston dispute.”
Lorenzo remembered.
Three capos had threatened to split from the Bellandi organization after a failed real-estate partnership.
Lorenzo spent months handling it.
Victoria had argued that one man should not be able to paralyze the entire family simply by being unavailable.
At the time, he dismissed her.
Apparently she did not dismiss herself.
Victoria lifted her chin.
“You disappeared into Boston for twelve weeks.”
“I was working.”
“And every decision in New York waited for you.”
“That’s called command.”
“That’s called dependence.”
Her voice remained controlled.
But the room heard the resentment beneath it.
Victoria continued.
“I built a contingency.”
“Using my voice?”
“I built options.”
Lorenzo’s eyes went cold.
“Without telling me.”
“You would have said no.”
There it was.
Not shame.
Justification.
Lorenzo’s thumb moved against his signet ring.
Victoria saw.
“Go ahead.”
Her gaze held his.
“Be furious.”
A faint smile.
“That doesn’t make me wrong.”
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Claire interrupted.
“There’s another problem.”
Lorenzo turned.
She had opened the authorization history.
The synthetic voice had not been used only during Lorenzo’s absence.
It had issued commands while Lorenzo was physically inside the estate.
Security transfers.
Financial approvals.
Personnel removals.
One order had been executed three months earlier.
Lorenzo remembered the incident.
A veteran capo named Joseph Marino had been removed after supposedly insulting Lorenzo during a private meeting.
Lorenzo had always found the story strange.
Joseph swore he never received a warning.
Marcus had presented an audio authorization from Lorenzo.
Lorenzo had trusted Marcus.
Joseph lost his position.
His income.
His protection.
Lorenzo looked at Marcus.
“You removed Joseph with my voice.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Victoria stepped in.
“Joseph was disloyal.”
“That wasn't your decision.”
“It became ours when you refused to see it.”
Lorenzo’s gaze moved between them.
Then Claire opened Joseph’s original disciplinary file.
One attachment had never been shown to Lorenzo.
A written objection.
Joseph claimed Marcus was diverting security payments into private accounts.
The date was one week before his removal.
Lorenzo looked up.
Joseph had not been expelled because he insulted Lorenzo.
May you like
He had been expelled after accusing Marcus.
And Victoria had allowed Lorenzo’s own stolen voice to bury him.
