Chapter 18 - Maria’s Password
Maria cried before I finished the question.
“I didn’t access anything.”
Theo checked her laptop.
No malware.
No strange files.
Then Sofia walked into the kitchen holding a small silver USB drive.
“I found this in Miss Vanessa’s room.”
Maria covered her mouth.
Theo took it carefully.
The drive contained cloned login credentials for twelve employees.
Maria’s was one.
Mine was another.
Vanessa had been preparing backups for every operation.
The restricted-server access had downloaded one folder.
PERSONNEL - WITNESSES.
Names.
Addresses.
Family information for employees who had seen suspicious transactions.
Vanessa and Anthony had not just stolen money.
They had built leverage.
Marco’s sister.
Gail in accounting.
A city inspector whose son had a drug charge.
Daniel Shaw’s gambling debt.
Everyone had a weakness cataloged beside their name.
Mine said:
VINCENT ROSSI - FAMILY. PARTICULARLY SOFIA.
I read that line until the words blurred.
Elena took the page from me.
“This is how they controlled people.”
I nodded.
“And how my father did too.”
The company created a witness-support fund, legal assistance, and anonymous reporting channel managed outside Rossi Holdings.
It cost millions.
I considered it cheap.
At Anthony’s preliminary hearing, his lawyer argued he had inherited a corrupt system and was being made the scapegoat for a dead father.
Elena sat beside me.
When Anthony entered, he looked at Sofia.
I stood instinctively.
He smiled.
Then his lawyer handed our attorney a sealed motion.
Anthony was challenging my ownership of Rossi Holdings.
He claimed my father’s final trust amendment had been forged.
May you like
If true, I did not own the company.
Anthony did.
