Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO OWNED THE COMPANY
Sofia did not want DeLuca Freight.
That was the first thing she said.
“I don't want twenty percent, forty percent, or one percent.”
Matteo looked at the trust documents.
“It's forty-one.”
She glared.
“Not helping.”
Adrian almost smiled.
The dormant trust activated if Salvatore died and any evidence emerged that Victor was operating unauthorized criminal routes.
The ledger triggered it.
Forty-one percent of voting shares.
Combined with Adrian's thirty-two and Matteo's inherited ten, they could shut Victor out permanently.
“Why me?” Sofia asked.
Adrian read his father's letter.
“Because you weren't legally family.”
She stared.
Salvatore had anticipated that DeLuca relatives might be coerced.
Sofia, as an outsider with financial expertise, could act independently.
“You knew my father better than I thought.”
Matteo laughed.
“He liked you more than us.”
“Reasonably.”
The joke lasted five seconds.
Then Marco entered.
“Victor moved.”
“Where?”
“He called an emergency shareholder meeting for tomorrow morning.”
Adrian frowned.
“He doesn't have authority.”
“He has proxies.”
“How many?”
“Potentially enough if Sofia doesn't appear.”
Everyone looked at her.
Sofia closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
Victor planned to declare Matteo legally dead, challenge Sofia's trust, and consolidate control before their evidence reached federal investigators.
“We go tonight,” Adrian said.
Sofia looked at him.
“To authorities?”
“Yes.”
That surprised Marco.
It surprised Matteo more.
“Federal?”
Adrian nodded.
His father had requested it.
And Adrian was finally tired of inheriting men else's fear.
They contacted an assistant U.S. attorney whose name appeared in Salvatore's files.
Helen Ward.
Now head of a federal organized-crime unit.
She remembered Salvatore.
“He never made the meeting.”
Adrian said, “Victor made sure.”
Ward reviewed the files.
Her expression hardened.
“This is enough for warrants.”
“Enough to arrest Victor?”
“Not tonight.”
Adrian hated legal sentences that began that way.
“But enough to freeze several accounts and protect documents.”
“What about the shareholder vote?”
“That's civil governance.”
Sofia looked at Adrian.
“Then we handle that.”
The next morning, they entered DeLuca Freight headquarters together.
Adrian.
Matteo.
Sofia.
Lily stayed at the estate with Teresa and federal protective agents.
Marco came too.
Victor was already seated at the head of the boardroom table.
He looked at Matteo.
For the first time, Victor DeLuca forgot to smile.
“Well.”
Matteo sat.
“Miss me?”
Several directors turned pale.
Victor recovered.
“You're legally dead.”
“So were your morals.”
Adrian almost laughed.
Sofia placed the trust documents on the table.
Victor saw them.
His face changed again.
“You.”
“Yes.”
“You don't understand what you're holding.”
“Forty-one percent.”
“I meant power.”
Sofia smiled.
“I understand numbers. They're less dramatic.”
The board attorney verified the trust.
Victor objected.
Threatened litigation.
Claimed fraud.
Then federal agents entered the building with warrants.
Every old man around the table suddenly discovered great interest in cooperation.
Victor remained seated.
“You think this ends me?”
Adrian leaned forward.
“No.”
He looked at Matteo.
“Your decisions do.”
The shareholder vote stripped Victor of authority.
Sofia immediately voted to suspend every suspicious freight route pending independent review.
Matteo supported her.
Adrian did too.
Victor finally stood.
Then looked at Sofia.
“You always were the weak point.”
Matteo moved.
Adrian caught his arm.
Victor smiled.
“Ask her who gave me Lily's school.”
Sofia went white.
“No.”
Victor continued.
“It wasn't Elias.”
Adrian looked toward Marco.
Marco looked equally confused.
Victor smiled wider.
“It was someone inside your safe house.”
Later that afternoon, federal investigators traced the security leak.
The information had come from one of Matteo's most trusted people.
A man who had spent two years helping him hide.
Daniel Cruz.
May you like
Adrian's own guard.
The man standing beside him when he found the flash drive in room 417.
