Chapter 4 - MATTEO’S COUNTERATTACK
Matteo did not wait for the investigators to finish.
He called an emergency meeting of senior Vascari family members at a private restaurant Roman’s father had once used for sensitive discussions.
Roman was not invited.
Marco learned about it from a driver who still believed loyalty meant informing the most powerful person first.
“What do you want to do?” Marco asked.
Roman stood at the penthouse window.
“Nothing.”
“They are meeting about you.”
“They are allowed to meet.”
“Matteo will turn them against you.”
“If their loyalty depends on hiding records, I don’t want it.”
Marco studied him.
“You really have changed.”
“No. I’m trying to.”
The distinction mattered.
At the restaurant, Matteo told the family that Celeste had stolen confidential records and manipulated Roman into surrendering company control to outsiders.
He claimed David Chen intended to hand the entire Vascari organization to federal authorities.
He described the independent directors as weak professionals who did not understand how the family survived Chicago.
Several relatives believed him.
Others feared losing contracts.
By midnight, three managers resigned from the investigation-cooperation agreement. Two vendors refused interviews. A senior construction supervisor attempted to remove paper archives from a storage facility.
The supervisor was stopped by regular corporate security following written preservation procedures.
No guns.
No threats.
The records remained.
Matteo then attacked Celeste publicly.
An anonymous story appeared on a local crime-and-business blog describing Roman’s missing pregnant wife as a former forensic accountant who had taken company files after discovering his affair.
The article suggested she planned to extort him.
Her name trended in Chicago before breakfast.
Roman read the story once.
Then called David.
“Can we issue a statement?”
“A narrow one.”
“I want it clear that she had permission to access household records.”
“That can be stated.”
“And that no evidence supports extortion.”
“Yes.”
“No mention of where she is.”
“Obviously.”
The company released six sentences.
Roman released one under his own name.
Celeste Vascari identified potential accounting concerns through records she could lawfully access and preserved them through independent counsel. Any suggestion that she threatened or extorted me is false.
Matteo called within minutes.
“You publicly sided with her.”
“I publicly told the truth.”
“She abandoned you.”
“I betrayed her.”
“She is humiliating the family.”
“No. Records are doing that.”
Matteo’s voice lowered.
“You have forgotten who protected you when your father was bleeding on a warehouse floor.”
Roman remembered.
He had been twenty-three. Matteo had pulled him behind a concrete barrier and returned fire while Roman’s father died nearby.
For years, that moment erased every question.
Gratitude became permanent authority.
“You saved my life,” Roman said.
“Yes.”
“That did not give you ownership of everything I built afterward.”
Silence.
Matteo answered coldly.
“You sound like her.”
“Good.”
The following night, a small fire broke out inside an off-site document warehouse containing procurement records.
The sprinkler system contained it.
Fire investigators determined that an electrical panel had been deliberately tampered with.
Security footage showed a masked man entering through a service door using a valid vendor code.
Marco wanted to find him privately.
Roman refused.
“Give the footage to the fire marshal and police.”
“They’ll pull every permit and contract we have.”
“Then make sure the legitimate records are complete.”
“Roman, outside scrutiny could expose more than Matteo.”
“I know.”
Marco stared.
“You’re willing to risk everything?”
“No. I’m willing to stop protecting wrongdoing because exposure is inconvenient.”
That choice carried consequences.
Authorities opened inquiries into bid practices involving Vascari construction entities. Lenders requested additional reports. Minority investors demanded governance reforms.
Roman’s legitimate empire did not collapse.
It became uncomfortable.
He appeared before the independent board committee and acknowledged signing amendments without reading them.
One director asked whether he intended to resign.
“If you conclude that is necessary, yes.”
The room became silent.
Roman Vascari had never offered anyone the authority to remove him.
The committee did not demand immediate resignation. It restricted his unilateral approval powers while the investigation continued.
Roman accepted.
Matteo called him weak again.
Then Anthony Vascari hired separate counsel.
Matteo’s son was thirty-four and technically owned interests in two questioned vendors. He requested immunity discussions concerning his cooperation.
David made no promises.
Anthony produced messages from his father.
One read:
Roman is too busy chasing comfort to notice anything beyond the signature line. We have less than a year before the baby drags him back into the house.
Another:
Use Celeste’s questions to identify what needs moving. She is smarter than he realizes.
Roman read the line three times.
Matteo knew Celeste was intelligent.
Roman had known too.
He simply preferred her intelligence when it supported his life rather than questioned it.
The final message contained an instruction to transfer ownership of Bellora’s shell subcontractor before the baby’s due date.
That established a timetable.
Investigators froze only the disputed vendor accounts through court procedures. Payroll accounts remained open. Employees continued receiving wages.
Matteo responded by appearing outside Roman’s penthouse with six men.
Building security notified Marco.
Roman went downstairs alone except for one unarmed attorney and the building’s security supervisor.
Matteo waited in the lobby.
“You brought a lawyer,” he said with contempt.
“Yes.”
“What happened to you?”
“I stopped confusing private violence with strength.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“I could have ended you fifteen years ago.”
“Probably.”
“I made your name.”
“You helped.”
“And this is how you repay me?”
“By allowing facts to be examined.”
Matteo’s expression twisted.
“You think Celeste will return after this?”
Roman felt the question strike its target.
He answered anyway.
“No.”
Matteo blinked.
“Then why continue?”
“Because whether she returns does not decide what is right.”
The six men behind Matteo shifted.
For years, they had watched Roman make decisions through rage. Now they watched him refuse the bait.
Matteo looked almost frightened.
He had built his entire defense around the belief that Roman’s reform was another strategy to recover his wife.
If Celeste remained gone and Roman continued, then the change was real.
Matteo left.
Two days later, authorities arrested the man suspected of damaging the warehouse electrical panel.
He was a Bellora contractor.
Phone records connected him to Matteo’s assistant.
Matteo was not arrested immediately.
Evidence required more than family certainty.
Roman waited.
Waiting became the hardest discipline he ever learned.
Then Rebecca called.
Celeste had begun experiencing contractions at thirty-five weeks.
May you like
The doctor was concerned.
And for the first time since she disappeared, she had agreed to let Roman come near her.
