Chapter 5 - Someone Inside Lombardi Holdings
"Dan."
The voice came again.
Dante didn't move.
Police opened the storage door from outside.
Light flooded the unit.
A woman stood beyond them.
Late sixties.
Silver hair.
Elegant coat.
Dante looked as though someone had removed the floor beneath him.
"Aunt Sofia?"
Harper watched his face.
This wasn't performance.
Sofia Lombardi had lived in Switzerland for nearly twenty years.
Dante hadn't seen her since his father's funeral.
She had returned because Samuel contacted her.
That revelation led them to a quiet interview room at the precinct.
Sofia explained.
Samuel Reed had been her closest friend.
Not romantically.
They had grown up together.
When Samuel discovered financial manipulation inside Lombardi Holdings, he contacted Sofia.
The scheme hadn't begun with Gabriel.
It began with Giovanni Lombardi.
Dante's father.
Giovanni had secretly moved company assets through trusts to maintain personal control.
Samuel helped.
Then regretted it.
Michael Hayes discovered part of the system.
Samuel promised Michael protection but told Giovanni what Michael knew.
Three weeks later, Michael died.
Samuel believed Giovanni was responsible.
But he never proved it.
Harper sat very still.
Dante looked devastated.
"My father?"
Sofia nodded.
"I don't know whether Giovanni caused the accident. Samuel doesn't know either. What we know is that he ordered Michael's investigation buried."
Harper could handle uncertainty.
What hurt was knowing her father had been right.
And knowing powerful people had chosen silence.
"What about Gabriel?" she asked.
Sofia's face tightened.
"Gabriel found Giovanni's system after his death."
"And continued it."
"Yes."
Dante looked away.
The current twelve-million-dollar scheme belonged to Gabriel.
He had used Samuel's old infrastructure.
Arthur's trust was camouflage.
Meridian properties gave Gabriel leverage over Lombardi's shipping operations.
He intended to force a restructuring that would give him control.
"Why would Samuel help him?" Harper asked.
"He didn't," Sofia said. "Gabriel found Samuel."
Samuel's fake death had been protection.
Gabriel discovered he was alive eighteen months ago.
Since then, Samuel had been forced into hiding again.
Harper disliked the vagueness.
"Forced how?"
"Threats to expose people who helped him disappear. Financial pressure. Surveillance."
Not melodrama.
Leverage.
Paperwork.
The same weapons Harper understood.
"Then why come to the gala?"
"To see you."
Harper frowned.
"Me?"
"Samuel knew Michael had a daughter. When your name appeared on the Pendleton account, he realized history was repeating."
The spreadsheet tracking Harper hadn't been Gabriel's plan.
It was Samuel's.
Harper bristled.
"He manipulated me."
"Yes."
Sofia didn't soften it.
"He believed you were the only person who could find the scheme independently and be believed."
"He could have emailed."
Sofia almost smiled.
"Samuel has always preferred unnecessarily complicated plans."
Dante actually laughed.
Once.
Quietly.
Then the room became serious again.
Gabriel remained COO.
He still had access.
And he didn't know exactly how much Harper possessed.
That was their advantage.
Harper proposed the next move.
Go to work.
Arthur stared at her.
"Absolutely not."
Harper looked at him.
"You don't get a vote."
Dante said, "He's right."
"You don't get one either."
Dante leaned back.
"Noted."
Harper would return to Pendleton.
Arthur would behave normally.
Dante would announce an internal review unrelated to Vanguard.
They would watch who moved.
The police and financial investigators would handle evidence preservation.
No vigilante theatrics.
No secret punishment.
Harper wanted records.
Records held up in court.
By noon, she walked into Pendleton and Associates wearing the same expression she used every Monday.
People said hello.
She answered.
Her desk looked untouched.
Almost.
Harper sat.
One pencil had moved.
She knew because she aligned them when thinking.
Someone had searched her office.
She opened her computer.
Normal.
Then she checked the printer queue.
At 3:42 a.m., someone had printed thirty-eight pages using her credentials.
She retrieved the print log.
Document title:
MERIDIAN_FINAL.
The file no longer existed.
Harper called Arthur into her office.
He shut the door.
"Someone used my computer."
"When?"
"Last night."
"Can you recover it?"
"Probably."
She contacted IT under the excuse of a corrupted client file.
Ten minutes later, they restored a temporary copy.
Harper opened it.
Her heart accelerated.
It wasn't accounting.
It was a contract.
A proposed acquisition.
Meridian Development Trust would transfer its waterfront parcels to Lombardi Holdings in exchange for voting shares.
Enough voting shares to shift control.
Recipient:
Gabriel Lombardi.
But the signature page had another name.
Dante Lombardi.
Forged.
Harper immediately called him.
"Dante."
"What?"
"Gabriel isn't planning to take the company from you later."
Silence.
"He's doing it now."
The board meeting was scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
Three hours away.
Dante moved quickly.
Attorneys were contacted.
Board members notified that disputed documents existed.
Investigators obtained preservation orders for relevant systems.
Harper continued examining metadata.
The forged contract had been created on a Pendleton computer.
Arthur's credentials.
Again.
Someone wanted Arthur blamed.
She checked access.
The file originated remotely.
IP address.
Lombardi Holdings headquarters.
Then she found the user.
Not Gabriel.
Harper stared.
"Arthur."
He came closer.
"What?"
The login belonged to:
ELENA.VOSS.
Arthur frowned.
"Who's Elena Voss?"
Harper called Dante.
He went silent.
Finally:
"My general counsel."
Harper felt the pieces rearranging again.
Elena had worked beside Dante for nine years.
She had reviewed acquisitions.
Trusts.
Board documents.
Everything.
If Gabriel wanted control, Elena could make forged documents look legitimate.
Dante whispered, "She was the one who told me to hire Pendleton."
Harper closed her eyes.
There it was.
The bridge.
Gabriel.
Elena.
Arthur.
Harper.
All connected.
Then the office elevator opened.
Harper heard footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Arthur looked through the glass wall.
His face drained.
A woman in a charcoal suit walked directly toward Harper's office.
Elena Voss.
She stopped outside.
Raised one hand.
May you like
And knocked.
In her other hand was Harper's missing encrypted drive.
