Chapter 9
The audit found a problem nobody expected.
Some of the altered approvals predated Celeste’s Blue Cedar scheme.
Two by almost a year.
Rocco stared at the timeline.
“That’s impossible.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“It means she didn’t start this.”
“It means the document manipulation existed before Blue Cedar.”
Adrian’s name appeared repeatedly in those older transactions.
Vendors tied to his crews had received exceptions from competitive bidding.
Not huge amounts.
Enough to matter.
Enough to establish a pattern.
Rocco called Adrian into counsel’s office.
“You were changing approvals before Celeste ever created Blue Cedar.”
Adrian did not deny it.
His lawyer closed his eyes.
“How long?”
“About two years.”
Rocco felt something shift.
“Why?”
Adrian rubbed both hands over his face.
“Family vendors couldn’t pass the new compliance rules.”
“So you bypassed them.”
“Yes.”
“Using my name.”
“Sometimes.”
Rocco stood.
Claire told him to sit.
He did not.
Adrian continued.
“When Celeste found out, she threatened to tell you.”
Rocco stared at him.
Now the sequence changed.
He had assumed Celeste needed Adrian because of Blue Cedar.
But Adrian had already been falsifying approvals before Celeste’s financial trouble entered the picture.
“What did she want?”
“At first? Money.”
“For Blue Cedar?”
“Eventually.”
Rocco’s voice dropped.
“Eventually?”
Adrian looked toward his attorney.
The man nodded once.
“She found the old approvals before Blue Cedar existed.”
Rocco sat down slowly.
“So she had leverage first.”
“Yes.”
“And you helped her create Blue Cedar because she could expose you.”
Adrian said nothing.
That silence confirmed part of it.
But not all.
Claire spread the timelines side by side.
Older forged approvals.
Celeste discovers them.
Blue Cedar appears months later.
Adrian’s nighttime visits intensify.
More documents are altered.
Mia’s glasses begin disappearing.
The structure was clear.
What remained unclear was the direction of control.
Was Adrian using Celeste?
Was Celeste using Adrian?
Or had they moved back and forth until neither could escape?
The answer arrived the next morning when forensic analysts recovered a draft corporate memo from Celeste’s laptop.
It had never been sent.
The title was enough.
Executive Authorization Irregularities — Rocco Moretti.
May you like
Rocco stared at his own name.
Celeste had been preparing to accuse him.
