Chapter 10
Dominic had not been stealing money from the club.
He had been stealing businesses from the people who depended on it.
North Harbor Holdings was controlled through a management company called DCC Management.
Dominic Charles Castellano controlled DCC.
He had no large direct ownership stake in the businesses at the beginning.
That was why his personal finances showed almost nothing.
His compensation came through future equity rights.
The more vendor businesses North Harbor acquired and successfully integrated, the larger Dominic’s ownership position became.
The entire scheme had been designed as a pipeline.
Dominic first approached longtime vendors openly.
He offered investment.
Partnership.
Partial purchase.
Most refused because they wanted family businesses to remain family businesses.
So Dominic created leverage.
He increased club orders, making vendors more dependent on Castellano revenue.
Then he withheld legitimate payments under invented performance reviews.
The money stayed in club accounts, which explained why no obvious embezzlement appeared.
Those inflated cash balances also made the club’s short-term financial position look stronger while vendors weakened outside.
Harbor Bridge then approached selected vendors with expensive emergency loans.
The lender was not owned by Dominic.
It did not need to be.
Meridian Development had a referral agreement with Harbor Bridge.
Dominic’s management team quietly supplied the names of distressed vendors.
If they defaulted, their debt could be sold.
North Harbor stood ready to buy.
If they avoided the loans, North Harbor made direct acquisition offers instead.
Once ownership changed, Dominic used his authority at the club to guarantee continued contracts.
That made the acquired businesses immediately more valuable.
The three earlier clues had been telling the truth all along.
The club had money but deliberately kept it instead of paying vendors.
Harbor Bridge appeared almost immediately after each payment hold.
And Dominic renewed contracts after ownership changed even though those same vendors had supposedly been under “performance review.”
Performance had never mattered.
Ownership did.
Carter Bakery was supposed to be the next acquisition.
Dominic had already approved the target price.
Daniel’s refusal to borrow only changed the path.
Dominic increased the payment hold, expecting financial pressure to force a direct sale.
Maeve’s presence in the lobby had been irrelevant to the business plan.
What happened to her was simply what Dominic had become while executing it.
Someone who looked at the daughter of a man he was deliberately starving of cash and saw inconvenience instead of a child.
Rocco met Dominic through attorneys after the evidence became complete.
Dominic read the voting agreement.
Then stopped pretending.
“You were going to replace me eventually,” he said.
Rocco frowned.
“What?”
“You never thought I was good enough to own anything important.”
“So you took other people’s businesses?”
“I built a supply network.”
“You manufactured distress.”
“I made weak companies sell.”
“You made them weak.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“The club has carried these people for decades because somebody’s father knew somebody’s uncle. I was turning loyalty into assets.”
Rocco understood the logic.
That was what made it dangerous.
Dominic did not see himself as a thief.
He saw himself as the first Castellano willing to stop being sentimental.
Rocco looked at him.
“You could have terminated bad contracts.”
“And lose the vendors?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Rocco’s voice lowered.
“You didn’t want better suppliers.”
He pushed the North Harbor agreement back across the table.
“You wanted to own the suppliers after breaking them.”
May you like
Dominic said nothing.
For the first time, the silence belonged to him.
