Chapter 3
Dominic canceled the fragrance launch forty minutes before the first outside buyers were scheduled to enter.
The decision cost hundreds of thousands of dollars immediately.
Catering.
Travel.
Press arrangements.
Retail appointments.
International distributors.
None of it mattered as much as discovering whether the formula had been compromised.
The atelier’s master perfumer, Helen Mercer, nearly cried when Dominic told her.
“You think Luca has it?”
“I think we don’t know.”
“That formula is Elise’s base.”
“I know.”
The new fragrance had begun with one of Elise’s unfinished accords.
Helen and her team had developed it after her death.
Dominic had resisted naming it after his wife.
Instead, they called it First Light because Elise used to test early formulas before anyone else arrived.
The fragrance was supposed to be the atelier’s return after two quiet years.
Now trays were sealed.
Samples were inventoried.
The blending room was locked.
Outside cybersecurity consultants were brought in to preserve digital formula-access logs.
Dominic removed Valeria from the building.
She left only after Rebecca made clear that nobody was detaining her.
Lucian’s credentials were suspended.
His company’s delivery access was frozen.
Then came the first inconsistency.
Every physical master formula vial was accounted for.
Every controlled digital formula file was still inside the atelier system.
No unauthorized export appeared in the logs.
Helen looked at Dominic.
“If Luca received anything, it wasn’t the master formula.”
Dominic should have felt relieved.
He didn’t.
Paul Grant, the atelier’s controller, arrived with preliminary figures on Knox Executive Logistics.
The company had billed Maison Caradonna nearly $780,000 in eighteen months.
Far more than Margaret had guessed.
“For what?”
“Secure transport, private-terminal handling, overnight escorts.”
“How much work did they actually do?”
Paul hesitated.
“We’re still verifying.”
Dominic stared at the pages.
One invoice billed fourteen guards for an overnight shipment.
The atelier security log showed four.
Another billed two armored vehicles.
The camera archive showed one ordinary cargo van.
Fraud suddenly looked more likely than formula theft.
Then Rebecca brought him something recovered from the launch office.
Valeria’s engagement-planning folder.
Mixed among seating charts and jeweler receipts was a copy of a Knox invoice with handwritten figures in the margin.
Valeria’s handwriting.
Subtract Luca first.
Dominic read it twice.
May you like
The rival capo had not simply received a kiss.
Somebody had been paying him.
