Chapter 7 - Someone Inside the Company
The board meeting began at 7 a.m.
Alessia walked in wearing the same calm expression employees had seen through bankruptcies, hurricanes, labor disputes, and her father’s death.
Inside, she was furious.
The forged consent appeared on the screen.
Her signature looked perfect.
The document metadata looked legitimate.
Even the internal routing code was correct.
Only three people could generate that code.
Alessia.
The CFO.
And General Counsel Nathan Cross.
Nathan sat three seats away.
He would not meet her eyes.
Alessia knew before anyone said it.
“Leave the room,” she told everyone except Nathan and the outside forensic attorney.
Nathan went pale.
“Alessia—”
“How much?”
He stared at her.
“How much did Garrett pay you?”
Nathan denied it for eleven minutes.
Then the forensic attorney placed bank records in front of him.
A consulting company linked to Nathan’s brother had received $480,000 over two years.
Payments originated from an entity controlled by Garrett’s firm.
Nathan’s shoulders collapsed.
“He said it was just leverage.”
Alessia’s voice stayed level.
“Leverage against whom?”
“Your father at first.”
“What did you give him?”
“Trust summaries. Board schedules. Draft estate planning memos.”
Alessia felt sick.
“You gave my husband confidential information about my father?”
“Before he was your husband.”
The room went silent.
There it was.
Proof.
Garrett had been studying the Moretti family before Alessia ever met him.
Nathan continued.
“He wanted to know where you went. What events you attended. What causes you supported.”
Alessia closed her eyes briefly.
The gallery.
Garrett had known she would be there.
Their entire “chance meeting” had been manufactured.
Nathan began talking faster.
“He told me Evelyn only wanted restitution for what Carlo did to Victor.”
“Carlo caught Victor stealing.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
Nathan could not answer.
Alessia called security.
Nathan was removed pending criminal referral.
The forged consent was blocked.
The credit facility was frozen.
But Nathan gave investigators something useful before his attorney ended the interview.
Garrett and Evelyn were terrified of one specific file.
“Carlo called it Belladonna.”
Alessia frowned.
“What is Belladonna?”
Nathan shook his head.
“I never saw it.”
Samuel had never heard the name either.
Miriam had.
When Alessia told her, her mother went quiet.
“Your father had a greenhouse.”
“I know.”
“He grew belladonna once.”
Alessia stared.
Carlo loved rare plants.
Miriam continued.
“After he got sick, he told me he had moved Belladonna somewhere nobody would think to water it.”
Alessia’s heart accelerated.
That did not sound like a plant.
May you like
Her father had hidden something.
And Garrett knew enough about it to be afraid.
