Chapter 5
Adrian admitted taking the portfolio.
Only after Rocco showed him the garage stills.
“I borrowed it.”
“You stole it from my bedroom.”
“I returned it.”
“That’s not how borrowing works.”
Adrian’s attorney, Michael Crane, sat beside him.
The meeting took place downtown instead of the estate.
Rocco wanted distance between business and Mia.
“What was inside?” Rocco asked.
“Copies.”
“Of?”
“Documents.”
Rocco stared.
Michael intervened.
“We should be specific only where necessary.”
Rocco looked at him.
“You may be paid by the hour. I’m not.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“I thought you were cutting me out.”
Rocco went still.
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
There it was.
Adrian explained that six months earlier he learned Rocco was considering restructuring legitimate companies.
Capos would lose automatic executive roles.
Family members without relevant qualifications would no longer have guaranteed board influence.
Adrian believed it was the first step toward stripping the old family organization of financial power.
He was correct.
Rocco had simply not announced it.
“How did you find out?”
Adrian did not answer.
That answer implicated Celeste.
Rocco continued.
“So you stole documents to understand my plan.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Adrian realized the mistake.
Michael spoke quietly to him.
Adrian then said, “Some documents showed vendor changes I didn’t recognize.”
“What vendors?”
“I’m not answering yet.”
Rocco leaned back.
That phrase again.
Not yet.
He was beginning to hate it.
Back at the estate, Claire reviewed the restructuring material.
One document had been altered.
Not the original digital file.
A printed copy found inside Rocco’s home cabinet.
The altered version included a handwritten note in the margin:
R.M. approves interim exception through Q4.
The initials looked like Rocco’s.
They were not his handwriting.
Claire held the page under the desk lamp.
“Someone wanted this to look like your approval.”
“For what?”
She turned to the referenced appendix.
Three vendors were exempted from the new controls.
One was a transportation consultant connected to Adrian.
Another supplied construction equipment to Moretti Holdings.
The third company meant nothing to Rocco.
Blue Cedar Administrative Services.
Claire searched the corporate registry.
The company had been created eight months earlier.
Its mailing address was a private mailbox.
May you like
Its registered organizer was a lawyer Rocco recognized.
Celeste’s former attorney.
