Chapter 8
Silvio authorized a full forensic review of Grant’s security company contracts with the Marchetti businesses.
It was irreversible.
Grant had been his brother-in-law for fourteen years.
Hundreds of employees depended on contracts tied to the family.
If Grant’s company collapsed, innocent people could lose jobs.
Silvio ordered the auditors to separate legitimate operations from questionable billing before terminating anything.
Then he filed through counsel for an order preventing Lucinda and Grant from unsupervised contact with Ethan and Mia while the investigations continued.
Lucinda responded by accusing him of using the children as weapons.
Silvio read the filing once.
Then stopped reading.
The same day, Grant made his move.
His attorney submitted the courtyard assault evidence to the council.
Witness statements confirmed Silvio struck him.
Other witnesses confirmed Silvio struck Lucinda after she tried to leave.
Grant demanded Silvio’s temporary suspension under the governance provision he himself had helped create.
The council voted.
Seven to five.
Silvio was suspended from active leadership pending the review.
When Dominic delivered the result privately, he looked embarrassed.
Silvio was not.
“Follow the rule.”
“You know Grant designed it.”
“I voted for it too.”
Dominic exhaled.
“You really going to let him take your chair?”
Silvio looked toward the conference-room door.
“A chair is replaceable.”
His children were not.
The forensic accountants began digging into Grant’s vendors.
Meanwhile, the automotive-data specialist recovered access logs from the SUV’s connected account.
The system showed a remote climate command at 1:44 p.m.
Air-conditioning off.
The user credential belonged to Grant’s corporate administrator account.
Grant’s attorney immediately argued that multiple employees shared the login.
Possible.
Then Mara found something else.
At 1:58 p.m., someone used the same account to check the SUV’s interior temperature remotely.
Ninety-eight degrees and rising.
No command followed to restart the air-conditioning.
Five minutes later, Silvio opened the door.
May you like
Grant had known the temperature before Silvio did.
And whoever checked it had chosen not to help.
