Chapter 9 - The Enemy Inside Moretti Holdings
Clara looked at Margaret as if she had become a stranger.
“Tell me he's wrong.”
Margaret cried.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
That sentence again.
Always protection.
Always lies.
Years earlier, Julian had approached Margaret claiming he needed Clara's signature to keep the Bennett company dormant.
Margaret complied.
She had not known he intended to activate its voting rights.
“Why didn't you tell Dad?”
“I didn't trust anyone.”
“Apparently including me.”
Clara walked away.
Dante found her in the empty boardroom.
She stood beside the windows.
“I spent my career believing numbers were honest,” she said.
“They are.”
“People aren't.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You're surprisingly comforting.”
“I've been practicing.”
She laughed despite herself.
Then cried.
Dante did not tell her to stop.
He simply stood beside her.
Eventually Clara leaned against him.
His arm came around her.
No demand.
No arrangement.
No contract.
Just warmth.
She looked up.
He looked down.
For a moment, the entire conspiracy disappeared.
Then Clara kissed him.
It was brief.
Unexpected.
She pulled back first.
“That was professionally inappropriate.”
“Extremely.”
“We should forget it.”
“No.”
She almost smiled.
Then alarms sounded.
Marcus entered.
“The board called an emergency vote.”
Dante straightened.
“When?”
“Now.”
Julian had activated proxy shares.
Dante's removal as CEO was on the agenda.
They rushed downstairs.
The board meeting had already begun remotely.
Clara examined the proxy totals.
Julian controlled 48 percent.
Dante controlled 46.
Six percent undecided.
“Who owns the six?”
Marcus checked.
A company called Bellington Partners.
Clara froze.
“That's impossible.”
Dante looked at her.
“Why?”
“My firm owns Bellington.”
Halston & Pierce.
Thomas Reed.
They called him.
No answer.
Clara accessed corporate filings.
Bellington had been created twelve years earlier.
Its director was Thomas.
Its beneficial owner hidden.
She dug deeper.
Then found an archived disclosure.
Owner: Margaret Bennett.
Clara stared.
Her mother again.
Margaret entered behind them.
“I can explain.”
Clara turned.
“You own six percent of Moretti Holdings?”
“Technically, the Bennett trust does.”
“And you forgot to mention it?”
“I didn't know until yesterday.”
Clara rubbed her forehead.
“I'm going to need a family meeting with name tags.”
Dante almost smiled.
Margaret could vote the shares.
That saved him.
Temporarily.
The board rejected his removal 52–48.
Julian's first direct attack failed.
Then Clara noticed something.
One director who had voted for Julian.
Gerald Knox.
The Bellaforte director.
She examined his historical votes.
Then others.
Patterns emerged.
Five executives had repeatedly approved transactions involving Valmont shells.
“The enemy isn't inside Moretti Holdings,” Clara said.
Dante looked at her.
“Enemies.”
They identified five.
Dante wanted them removed.
Clara stopped him.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they can lead us to Julian.”
They fed each executive different information.
Five fake meeting locations.
Five fake asset transfers.
Five different supposed vulnerabilities.
Then waited.
Only one leak produced movement.
A warehouse in Queens.
Marcus's team watched it.
At midnight, Julian arrived.
So did someone else.
Thomas Reed.
Clara stared at the surveillance feed.
Her boss embraced Julian.
Not threatened.
Not coerced.
Embraced.
Dante looked at her.
“I'm sorry.”
Clara felt strangely calm.
“Don't be.”
Thomas had lied from the beginning.
He had not accidentally sent her.
He had recruited her career years earlier.
She searched old employment records.
Thomas had personally approved her hiring eleven years ago.
Before she became notable.
Before she became senior.
Before any reason to care about her.
Unless he already knew who she was.
Clara searched her original application.
There.
A handwritten note scanned into the file.
STRONG ANALYTICAL INSTINCTS. KEEP CLOSE.
Initials:
T.R.
Her stomach turned.
She had not stumbled into the conspiracy.
She had been cultivated.
Dante read it.
“He's been watching you for eleven years.”
Clara nodded.
Then another document surfaced.
An internal memo.
From Thomas to Julian.
SUBJECT BENNETT IS READY.
Date: six months ago.
The same month Clara reviewed the distressed portfolio containing Schedule K language.
That assignment had been planted too.
Training.
A test.
Everything led to the red dress.
Dante closed the laptop.
“They built your career toward that meeting.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
He frowned.
“They tried.”
She reopened it.
“They didn't build me. I did.”
Dante's expression softened.
“Fair.”
Clara began copying evidence.
Then an encrypted folder appeared.
She had never seen it.
Password protected.
Hint:
THE FIRST THING CLARA EVER FOUND.
She stared.
Her father would know.
Daniel answered immediately.
Clara read the hint.
Silence.
Then he whispered, “Bluebird.”
The password worked.
Inside was one audio recording.
Thomas Reed speaking to Julian.
Clara pressed play.
Thomas's voice filled the room.
“Once she exposes Schedule K, Dante will trust her.”
Julian answered.
“And once he trusts her?”
Thomas laughed.
“She'll destroy him for us.”
Clara's blood chilled.
May you like
Then Thomas said something worse.
“Because Clara still doesn't know what her father did to Dante's mother.”
