Chapter 5
Dominic met Margaret in the atelier the next morning.
The launch decorations had been removed.
Without guests, the showroom looked like a workplace again.
Margaret sat on one of the upholstered stools with her cane resting nearby.
“I owe you something,” she said.
“What?”
“The part I didn’t tell you.”
Dominic waited.
She had begun suspecting Lucian nearly a year earlier.
Not because of Valeria.
Because of Paul Grant.
The controller once complained privately that Lucian’s invoices were becoming difficult to justify.
Margaret told him to document everything.
She did not tell Dominic.
“Why?”
“Because you were happy.”
Dominic stared at her.
“That’s your reason?”
“You had spent a year grieving Elise. Ava woke up asking for her mother. You barely slept. Then Valeria arrived and you started laughing again.”
Margaret looked down.
“I didn’t want to be the mother who destroyed that because her instincts were uncomfortable.”
Dominic felt anger.
Then shame for feeling it.
“You thought Lucian was stealing from me and said nothing.”
“I thought he was overbilling.”
“That’s stealing.”
“Yes.”
“Why finally investigate?”
“Because the amounts kept growing.”
Margaret had quietly requested older vendor records.
Then Valeria discovered she had been asking.
Their relationship deteriorated.
The “snooping” accusation at the launch had not begun that night.
It had been building for months.
Margaret opened her handbag and removed another document.
A copy of an old Knox invoice.
It predated Valeria’s engagement to Dominic by almost a year.
The original invoice was for $18,000.
The atelier paid $41,000.
Someone had altered the amount after vendor submission.
“Who approved it?”
Margaret pointed.
Lucian.
Dominic looked at her.
“So this started with him.”
“Yes.”
“Where does Valeria enter?”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
“She began protecting him after you two became serious.”
Dominic leaned back.
That distinction mattered.
Perhaps Valeria had not created the financial betrayal.
But she had chosen to inherit it.
Margaret touched his sleeve.
“There’s more about the airport.”
He waited.
“Luca saw me.”
Dominic frowned.
“At the terminal?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t he react?”
“I don’t know.”
“He knew you photographed them?”
“I think so.”
That bothered Dominic.
A rival capo involved in a stolen formula or secret payment scheme should not casually allow the boss’s mother to walk away with proof.
May you like
Unless the photograph was not dangerous to Luca.
Unless it was dangerous only to Valeria and Lucian.
