Chapter 11
Rocco confronted Dominic in the club’s boardroom.
Not in a basement.
Not surrounded by armed men.
Claire attended.
Grace attended.
Two independent club directors attended.
Dominic arrived with counsel.
Rocco placed the forensic report between them.
Dominic did not touch it.
“I already know what it says.”
“That saves time.”
Dominic looked toward the windows.
“You think I enjoyed any of it?”
Rocco said nothing.
“The club was dying.”
“You lied to me.”
“You were dealing with bigger things.”
“You lied.”
“I kept it alive.”
“With money that belonged to the neighborhood.”
“I was going to repay it.”
“When?”
“After redevelopment.”
“And the businesses you destroyed?”
Dominic’s expression tightened.
“They were failing.”
“Some were.”
“They would have sold eventually.”
“You made eventually happen faster.”
Dominic slammed one hand onto the table.
“Because somebody had to make decisions!”
His attorney quietly told him to calm down.
Dominic ignored him.
“You come in once a month, everyone stands up, everybody calls you boss, and you think that means you know what this place takes to run.”
Rocco’s eyes narrowed.
Dominic continued.
“I had payroll. Taxes. Repairs. Insurance. Members leaving. Debt.”
His voice cracked.
“And every time I considered telling you, I could already hear what you’d say.”
“What?”
“That I wasn’t ready.”
Rocco went still.
Dominic had spent his entire adult life trying to prove he deserved his uncle’s respect.
There was the family wound beneath the financial scheme.
Real.
Human.
Still not an excuse.
Rocco leaned forward.
“So instead of telling me the club was failing, you hurt people who couldn’t hurt you back.”
Dominic looked away.
“You falsified vendor records.”
Silence.
“You diverted charity money.”
Silence.
“You helped weaken businesses so a developer could buy their buildings.”
Dominic’s eyes closed.
“And when a three-year-old gave what she thought was her last money to a man she thought was poorer than she was, you knocked it onto the floor because you had trained yourself to believe people without power were beneath this club.”
Dominic whispered, “I know.”
Rocco shook his head.
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“You know now.”
Dominic was terminated permanently.
The board referred the financial findings to outside counsel and appropriate authorities.
May you like
Rocco did not protect him.
For the first time in Castellano history, family membership would not determine whether evidence left the room.
