Chapter 5 - MARIA REFUSED TO MOVE BACK INTO MY HOUSE
I arrived in Queens fifteen minutes after Maria called.
Not because I sent men first.
Because she called me.
That distinction mattered.
Police were already there.
Daniel had done it correctly.
Apartment door showed no obvious forced entry.
Lock undamaged.
A bedroom drawer opened.
Pendant gone.
Bruno’s collar untouched beside it.
Lily stood in kitchen furious enough to shake.
“They knew exactly.”
“Yes.”
“Who knew bank box?”
Too many now.
Lawyers.
Bank staff.
Investigators.
Duca audit.
Luca.
“Do not decide.”
she snapped.
I looked.
“Sorry.”
Maria sat at dining table.
Pale.
Daniel beside her.
I approached.
“Do you want to leave tonight?”
She looked at me.
“Not estate.”
“I did not say.”
“You were thinking.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Hotel?”
“No.”
“Daniel’s sister.”
Daniel said.
“She has room.”
Maria nodded.
“Fine.”
“Security?”
Her jaw tightened.
“Outside only.”
“Plainclothes.”
“No tracker.”
“Agreed.”
“Lily chooses own.”
Lily answered:
“I want one officer until we know.”
Good.
We built.
Again.
Not locked wing.
Not ownership.
The apartment search proved something.
Someone believed pendant still had value even after box opened.
Why?
Maybe they did not know box accessed.
Or pendant serial gave access to something else.
Adrian checked.
Old Duca crest pendants had three serials.
Mine.
Father’s.
Elena’s.
My father’s pendant buried with him.
Mine in safe.
Elena’s missing.
Could three act as physical authentication for other old accounts?
Maybe.
We notified banks, trustees, old archives.
Flag.
No transaction without modern legal verification.
Simple.
Then detectives found security-camera footage.
A man wearing maintenance uniform entered building using copied service credential.
Face partly visible.
Adrian recognized.
“Rafael Ferretti.”
Giancarlo’s nephew.
Not law-firm nephew? We already said nephew partner. Could be another nephew. Too many. Let's say Rafael was Giancarlo’s son, 34, worked facilities vendor. Better.
Rafael Ferretti.
Thirty-four.
Giancarlo’s son.
Former Duca Properties contractor dismissed two years earlier for procurement conflict.
He knew buildings.
Police found him next day.
He did not have pendant.
Claimed innocent.
Then a pawn? No.
His phone showed message to father:
Got V item. Passing tonight.
Strong.
Giancarlo still not arrested yet?
Under investigation.
He had surrendered passport voluntarily? Maybe.
Police moved.
Search warrant found pendant in office safe of Ferretti family accounting firm.
Giancarlo arrested for conspiracy, burglary-related receipt, fraud charges connected trust.
No private retaliation.
Maria got pendant back after evidence processing weeks later.
She nearly refused.
“Why?”
I asked.
“I’m tired of thing causing trouble.”
Lily said:
“It didn’t.”
Maria looked.
“What?”
“People did.”
There.
Correct.
Maria wore again eventually? Maybe not. She stored in bank.
Giancarlo’s arrest created corporate crisis.
News:
DUCA CFO ARRESTED IN SECRET VICTIMS-FUND SCHEME.
Stock? Private company. Lenders called.
Banks froze credit lines pending review.
Two customers suspended contracts.
Union demanded pension assurances.
Employees panicked.
Board met.
I attended as executive chairman? Source says Duca organization changed, independent directors. I can be chairman or CEO. Let's say I remained CEO until now? Source says under my control. We can make executive chairman. Need board dynamics. Patricia said:
“Lorenzo, historical loans signed under your tenure.”
“Yes.”
“Even if fraud not yours, governance failure happened under you.”
“Yes.”
“We need discuss temporary leave.”
Adrian looked at me.
Old world would never remove boss.
This was why I built board.
I left room.
Not figuratively.
The independent directors deliberated without me.
One hour later Patricia called.
“Board voted six to three placing you on administrative leave from executive authority during external review.”
My chest tightened.
“How long?”
“Until preliminary forensic report and lender remediation plan.”
“Do I retain board seat?”
“Nonvoting during review.”
There.
Humiliation.
Good governance.
I hated.
Good.
“I accept.”
Adrian looked almost proud.
“Do not.”
He laughed.
At home that night, I poured whiskey.
Did not drink.
Lily called.
“You okay?”
“Who told?”
“News.”
“Fine.”
“Liar.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want company?”
I stopped.
“Maybe.”
She came with takeout.
Not as child.
Adult.
We sat kitchen.
“No guards?”
she asked.
“Elsewhere.”
“Good.”
She ate noodles.
Then:
“Are you mad board suspended?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think unfair?”
“No.”
“Worst combination.”
“Yes.”
She looked.
“Do you worry company falls apart?”
“Yes.”
“Do they need you?”
“I hope not.”
There.
If companies required one feared man, reforms failed.
She nodded.
Then:
“Do you regret independent board?”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
We laughed.
The next day Giancarlo’s lawyer leaked claim that forged Lily application had been “authorized as an administrative settlement strategy” by senior Duca leadership.
Meaning me.
He had no signature from me.
But old company culture made allegation plausible.
I gave no press conference.
Outside counsel.
Documents.
Evidence.
Then one email surfaced:
Three years earlier, Giancarlo wrote me:
Historical reserve remains unresolved. Recommend eventual cleanup through final beneficiary settlement.
I replied:
Handle through proper channels. No surprises.
That line.
No surprises.
He would argue authority.
I had not known forgery.
But I told him handle.
Another delegation.
Lily read.
“Does this hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Did you mean forge me?”
“No.”
“Then say.”
“Through investigators.”
Good.
We were learning restraint so often it became annoying.
Then the board’s external review discovered something that could bankrupt Duca Holdings.
The trust loans were not eighteen million.
Including interest and undocumented transfers:
$42.6 million.
And under trust agreement, if loans resulted from breach of fiduciary duty, repayment could be accelerated immediately.
Duca Holdings had liquidity.
Not forty-two million without selling assets or refinancing.
And if forty-seven unpaid claims were reopened, total potential liability could exceed one hundred million.
For the first time since I rebuilt the organization, there was a real chance my legitimate empire would collapse.
May you like
Not because enemies.
Because people we had once owed were finally being allowed to knock.
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