Chapter 10 - THE NIGHT THE BLACKWOOD EMPIRE FELL
The meeting took place in an abandoned shipping office.
Ethan arrived with two attorneys and his security chief.
Adrian arrived alone.
I arrived with a laptop.
Naturally.
The men stared at each other.
Seven years of suspicion hung between them.
Ethan spoke first.
“You're alive.”
Adrian nodded.
“Apparently.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“Why didn't you come back?”
Adrian looked at him.
“Because someone tried to kill me.”
Ethan said nothing.
I placed my laptop on the table.
“Gentlemen, if we're finished with the dramatic reunion, we have a problem.”
They both turned.
I opened the financial records.
“Victor Salerno has been moving money through Blackwood shipping subsidiaries for eighteen months.”
Ethan frowned.
“How?”
“Someone inside your organization authorized the transactions.”
He looked at the screen.
Then froze.
The authorization code belonged to his chief financial officer.
Ethan stared.
“Impossible.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“That's becoming your favorite word.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“The CFO has been working with Salerno.”
Ethan's expression darkened.
I continued.
“And Vanessa's consulting company was used to disguise the transfers.”
Silence.
Then I displayed another document.
A series of communications connecting Daniel Russo, Salerno's network, and the missing funds.
Ethan stared.
His empire had been compromised from within.
The men he trusted had been stealing from him.
And the woman he planned to marry had been part of the operation.
For the first time, he looked genuinely defeated.
“What do we do?”
I leaned back.
“Something you've probably never tried.”
He looked at me.
May you like
“What?”
“Tell the authorities the truth.”
