Chapter 6 - THE BOARDROOM TRAP
Monday morning arrived with cameras outside Moretti Plaza.
Someone had leaked the emergency board meeting.
Reporters crowded the sidewalk behind metal barricades.
Headlines appeared before sunrise.
MORETTI GROUP LEADERSHIP CRISIS
CHAIRMAN FACES QUESTIONS OVER MISSING FUNDS
INSIDERS EXPECT BOARD CHALLENGE
Dominic read none of them.
At 8:55 a.m., he entered the thirty-ninth-floor boardroom.
Adrian Moretti was already seated.
At sixty-one, Adrian still looked like the polished family diplomat everyone trusted.
Silver at the temples.
Dark navy suit.
Calm smile.
A man who remembered birthdays, sent expensive wine after funerals, and had spent decades convincing people that Dominic possessed the temper while Adrian possessed the judgment.
“Dominic.”
“Uncle.”
Adrian glanced toward Elena.
His smile changed almost invisibly.
“Elena Carter.”
She took a seat beside Dominic.
“Adrian.”
“It’s been years.”
“Apparently not long enough.”
Three directors looked uncomfortable.
Marco stood near the door.
The meeting began at nine.
Adrian allowed others to attack first.
Concerns about missing corporate funds.
Questions about Dominic’s oversight.
Rumors of law-enforcement scrutiny.
One director cleared his throat.
“Dominic, twelve million dollars cannot disappear without leadership responsibility.”
“Correct.”
Adrian folded his hands sympathetically.
“No one enjoys this.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I do.”
Silence.
Adrian’s smile faded.
Dominic slid a folder onto the table.
“Westerly Consulting received twelve million during the period currently under review.”
The directors turned pages.
“Westerly transferred funds to Northline Property Services. Northline transferred money into foreign trusts and AM Holdings.”
Adrian remained calm.
“Are you accusing me?”
“No.”
Dominic leaned back.
“I’m describing bank records.”
“AM could mean anyone.”
“True.”
Adrian smiled again.
Then Dominic added, “Which is why we obtained beneficial ownership records this morning.”
Marco distributed another page.
Adrian did not touch it.
The directors did.
One whispered, “Jesus.”
AM Holdings belonged to Adrian Moretti.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“These documents could have been fabricated.”
Elena spoke.
“That’s interesting.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Because that’s exactly what happened to my termination letter.”
She placed it on the table.
Adrian glanced down.
“An HR matter.”
“No,” Dominic said. “It became a family matter when you forged my signature.”
“I did no such thing.”
Dominic nodded toward Marco.
The screens behind them illuminated.
Two scanned letters appeared side by side.
One dated seven years earlier.
One dated four days earlier.
A forensic document examiner’s report followed.
The signatures were not merely similar.
They were digitally identical.
Every pixel.
Every pressure artifact from the original scan.
The same image had been placed on both documents.
Dominic watched Adrian.
“My signature changed naturally over seven years.”
Nobody spoke.
“Yet these match perfectly.”
Adrian stared at the screen.
Dominic continued.
“The source file was stored under your executive credentials.”
“Credentials can be stolen.”
“True.”
Adrian almost relaxed.
Then Dominic placed one final item on the table.
The courier receipt.
“The letters can’t.”
Adrian’s eyes moved to it.
For the first time, he lost color.
Dominic’s voice stayed calm.
“Thirty-seven letters from Elena were gathered at Moretti Plaza and transferred to my father’s house seven years ago.”
Nobody moved.
“You signed for them.”
Adrian looked at the receipt.
His own signature.
Ink on paper.
Not digital.
Not forgeable through a copied file.
One signature.
One careless signature.
One proof that connected seven years of deception.
Elena watched him.
“You knew I was pregnant.”
Adrian said nothing.
“You knew Dominic never received my letters.”
Still nothing.
“You knew Lily existed.”
That broke him.
Adrian looked at Dominic.
“This family would have been destroyed.”
Dominic stood.
The boardroom became perfectly still.
“Careful.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“You think your father wanted a grandchild born to an accountant from Brooklyn?”
Elena did not flinch.
Dominic did.
Not because the insult hurt.
Because Adrian had finally admitted knowledge.
“My father made the decision,” Adrian continued. “I executed it.”
“You threatened her.”
“I protected you.”
“You stole my daughter.”
“I protected the Moretti name.”
Dominic walked slowly toward him.
Marco straightened.
Elena watched Dominic carefully.
This was the moment everyone in the room feared.
The famous Moretti temper.
The violence whispered about in restaurants after midnight.
Dominic stopped inches from his uncle.
Then he did something Adrian did not expect.
He smiled.
“You just confessed in front of twelve witnesses.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“And three federal investigators are listening from the next room.”
Nobody breathed.
Adrian looked toward the glass wall.
Marco opened the boardroom door.
Two federal agents and a financial-crimes prosecutor entered.
Adrian stood abruptly.
“You brought federal agents into Moretti Plaza?”
“Yes.”
“You stupid bastard.”
“Probably.”
“You think they’ll stop with me?”
Dominic’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
That answer frightened Adrian more than anything else.
Dominic had decided something over the weekend.
He would not preserve a poisoned empire simply because his grandfather had built it.
If saving Lily required burning every illegal branch from the Moretti tree, Dominic would hand the investigators the matches.
Adrian pointed at Elena.
“She did this to you.”
Dominic’s face went cold.
“No.”
He looked toward Lily’s mother.
“She reminded me I had something more important to protect.”
Agents approached Adrian.
But Adrian began laughing.
“You think this ends with bank records?”
Dominic watched him.
“You have no idea what your father built.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
Adrian leaned closer as an agent took his arm.
“You found twelve million.”
His eyes glittered.
“You should be asking where the other eighty went.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Marco cursed quietly.
Adrian smiled.
“There it is.”
The agents led him away.
But the boardroom no longer felt victorious.
Elena looked at Dominic.
“Eighty million?”
“I don’t know.”
Marco’s phone vibrated.
He checked it.
Then went pale.
“Dom.”
“What?”
“Westchester security just called.”
Dominic’s stomach dropped.
Lily had remained at the estate with Rosa.
“What happened?”
“The power went out six minutes ago.”
Dominic was already moving.
Marco continued.
“Backup generator didn’t start.”
“Call the guards.”
“They’re not answering.”
Dominic stopped.
The elevator doors opened.
A security feed appeared on Marco’s phone for two seconds before dying completely.
The last frozen image showed the front hall.
Rosa on the floor.
The door open.
May you like
And Lily’s stuffed rabbit lying alone beneath the staircase.
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