Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURES ROMAN GAVE AWAY
The first forensic report arrived twelve days later.
David placed it before Roman without ceremony.
“Lakefront Construction Solutions is a real company,” he said. “It employs forty-three people, owns equipment, and completed work on six Vascari projects.”
Roman turned the page.
“Then why is it in Celeste’s notebook?”
“Because thirty percent of the ownership is held through a trust benefiting Matteo’s son, Anthony.”
“Was that disclosed?”
“No.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“Did the company overbill us?”
“We don’t know yet. Its pricing is higher than comparable bids, but not automatically fraudulent.”
“Keep investigating.”
David nodded.
“Bellora Security Consulting is more concerning.”
The company had received nearly two million dollars in three years. Its invoices referred to confidential threat assessments, route monitoring, and executive-protection services.
Marco reviewed every service log.
Half the work had no corresponding record.
Bellora’s registered manager was Stephen Bellora, the brother of Matteo’s longtime girlfriend.
Roman looked at Marco.
“Have you ever hired them?”
“Twice. Small jobs. Less than sixty thousand total.”
“Then who approved the rest?”
David turned a tablet toward Roman.
Electronic authorizations filled the screen.
Several carried Matteo’s credentials.
Others carried Roman’s.
One was approved at 1:43 in the morning.
Another at 12:58.
A third at 2:11.
Roman recognized the dates immediately.
Bianca’s apartment.
A private dining room.
A hotel suite in Milwaukee.
He had signed each amendment from his phone.
“Those authorizations are mine,” he said.
David watched him.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Did you read the documents?”
Roman wanted to say he reviewed the summaries.
He wanted to say Matteo had always handled procurement.
He wanted to say the amendments were intentionally buried inside routine approvals.
All could be true.
None changed his answer.
“No.”
Marco looked away.
David did not.
“Then someone may have exploited weak controls, but you supplied part of the weakness.”
“Yes.”
“You understand that your own conduct could become relevant to investors, regulators, or law enforcement?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still authorize us to continue?”
Roman thought of Celeste’s final sentence.
Even if Matteo has been stealing from you, he did not make you betray me. That part is yours.
“Yes.”
That afternoon, Roman reviewed eighteen months of his calendar.
The pattern emerged slowly.
Sensitive contract amendments arrived on evenings when Bianca appeared in his personal messages.
Meetings disappeared from his calendar hours before they were supposed to occur. Some had been removed by Matteo’s executive assistant. Others disappeared after Roman texted instructions to “clear the night.”
One vanished appointment was Celeste’s twenty-eight-week prenatal visit.
At 11:06 that morning, Roman had messaged his chief of staff.
Move anything after six. I have plans.
His “plans” were dinner with Bianca.
At 12:21, Matteo sent three procurement amendments into Roman’s late-night approval queue.
At 12:54 the next morning, Roman signed all three inside an elevator.
He had not even been home.
Roman stared at the metadata until the numbers blurred.
Matteo had not forced him to miss the appointment.
He had simply recognized that Roman’s selfishness created predictable openings.
The distinction made the betrayal worse.
Bianca agreed to be interviewed through counsel.
David warned Roman not to attend.
Roman accepted.
Her testimony reached him as a written summary.
She said Matteo never introduced them, encouraged the relationship, or paid her. She had met Roman at a charity dinner and believed his claim that his marriage had become an empty arrangement maintained for public appearance.
She admitted knowing Celeste was pregnant.
She admitted she never verified Roman’s story because she feared the truth would require her to leave.
Her phone contained messages from Roman complaining that everyone needed something from him.
Company.
Family.
Celeste.
The baby.
Roman read one message he sent at 3:08 in the morning.
Sometimes I think disappearing would be easier than being responsible for everyone.
Bianca replied:
Then disappear with me.
Roman had answered with a heart.
He covered his mouth.
Lucia had been moving inside Celeste while he described fatherhood as another weight from which he wanted escape.
Marco stood near the window.
“You don’t have to read all of it tonight.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because Celeste lived with the consequences while I lived inside the lie.”
Roman continued.
Bianca had not been involved in the vendor scheme.
She had been the distraction Matteo exploited.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Roman instructed David to keep her separate from the corporate allegations unless evidence changed.
“No retaliation,” he said.
David raised an eyebrow.
“Against the woman you were sleeping with?”
“Against anyone.”
“That needs to remain true when the evidence becomes worse.”
“It will.”
The next evidence came from a junior accountant named Nadia Perez.
Nadia had questioned duplicate North Harbor Concrete invoices six months earlier. Her supervisor told her the issue was covered by “executive approval.”
Three weeks later, she was transferred away from construction accounts.
She saved copies of her notes because the explanation felt wrong.
Now she brought them to outside counsel.
The duplicated delivery tickets indicated that two Vascari entities had paid for the same concrete loads. Some money went to North Harbor. The rest went to a shell subcontractor controlled through Stephen Bellora.
The estimated overpayment exceeded three million dollars.
“Why didn’t she come to me?” Roman asked.
Nadia looked directly at him during her interview.
“Because Matteo was your uncle.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“It does.”
Roman became still.
She continued.
“Everyone knew family matters stayed inside the family. If I accused Mr. Matteo and turned out to be wrong, my career ended. If I was right, I assumed my career would end faster.”
Roman wanted to deny it.
Then remembered every time he said loyalty mattered more than paperwork.
“Did anyone threaten you directly?”
“No.”
“That almost makes it worse,” she said. “Nobody needed to.”
Fear had become policy without being written.
Roman thanked her and authorized anti-retaliation protections through the independent committee.
Then he returned to the penthouse.
He entered the nursery and opened Celeste’s notebook to the page listing the twenty-eight-week appointment.
Beneath it, she had written:
Stopped waiting at 7:42.
Roman sat in the rocking chair.
At 7:42 that night, he had been ordering wine for Bianca.
A faint sound escaped him.
Not a sob.
Something lower.
The grief of understanding that neglect could be documented by a clock.
His phone rang.
Rebecca.
Roman answered immediately.
“Is Celeste safe?”
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“Healthy.”
He closed his eyes.
“Thank you.”
“Celeste authorized me to ask a question.”
“Anything.”
“Did Matteo or anyone working with him have access to the penthouse’s security system?”
Roman looked toward Marco.
“Administrative access?”
Marco nodded slowly.
“His assistant had scheduling access for vendor entry during renovations.”
Roman’s blood turned cold.
“Why?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Three days before Celeste left, someone entered the nursery while she was at a medical appointment.”
Roman stood.
“Was anything taken?”
“She doesn’t know. The notebook had been moved.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Rebecca’s voice hardened.
“She no longer trusted what you would do.”
Roman looked at the walls.
Rage arrived like fire.
He wanted Matteo dragged into the room.
Wanted answers.
Wanted fear.
Then he heard Celeste again.
Investigate.
“Send the dates to David,” Roman said.
Rebecca went quiet.
“You’re not going after him?”
“Not without evidence.”
For the first time, Celeste’s sister sounded less hostile.
“Good.”
Security logs showed Matteo’s executive assistant used a renovation code at 3:16 that afternoon.
When interviewed, she claimed Matteo sent her to photograph the nursery invoice.
Then investigators recovered a deleted message.
See what she has. Roman cannot know until the vendor changes are complete.
The message came from Matteo.
May you like
The investigation was no longer only about conflicts and careless signatures.
Someone had entered Roman’s home to search the room where his pregnant wife slept in a rocking chair and investigated the theft everyone else was too frightened to question.
