Chapter 8
Rocco’s attorneys told him he had two paths.
Keep the matter private.
Pay the vendors.
Fire Dominic.
Sue whoever could be sued.
Protect the club from outside examination.
Or open everything.
Vendor contracts.
Bank records.
Management emails.
Lending contacts.
The payment holds.
The club’s credit facilities.
Everything investigators might lawfully need to determine whether the vendor failures resulted from fraud or commercial coercion.
The second option carried obvious danger.
The Castellano Club was legitimate on paper.
The people who gathered there were not always legitimate men.
A forensic review of club records could attract questions far outside accounts payable.
Rocco spent one night considering the choice.
Maeve made it for him without knowing she had.
Daniel sent a photograph.
Nothing dramatic.
Maeve asleep in a booth at the bakery after preschool, one hand curled around a paper bag.
Daniel’s message read:
She asked whether the club paid us yet. She thinks this is her problem.
Rocco stared at the sentence.
A four-year-old had given away her snack and last coins because adults had allowed business pressure to enter her understanding of hunger.
He called his lawyer.
“Open it.”
The following morning, Rocco signed agreements placing the club’s management temporarily under an independent operator.
Dominic’s records were preserved by an outside forensic firm.
Relevant financial information was provided to state and federal investigators through counsel.
Vendor-payment claims were placed under independent review.
The decision could not be taken back.
Senior Castellano members were furious.
One told Rocco he had opened a family institution to outsiders over “a bakery dispute.”
Rocco answered:
“No. I opened it because we owed people money and somebody used my name to make them afraid to ask for it.”
The consequences began immediately.
The club closed for several weeks.
Events were canceled.
Revenue disappeared.
Banks asked questions.
Two members resigned rather than participate in interviews.
News of a financial investigation reached the local press.
Rocco’s attorneys warned him that his own decisions would be examined too.
He agreed.
If he had delegated irresponsibly, that belonged in the record.
Then the forensic team found the first document Dominic had never expected anyone outside management to see.
A draft purchase agreement for Carter Bakery.
Buyer:
North Harbor Holdings.
Seller:
Daniel Carter.
The document had been prepared eleven days before Daniel ever received North Harbor’s first purchase offer.
His name was already typed onto a signature line.
May you like
So was the price.
Someone had decided what Daniel’s business would be worth before Daniel knew anyone planned to buy it.
