CHAPTER 9 THE SCANDAL AT MIDNIGHT
Sofia's call came from a warehouse district less than four miles from the Rossi headquarters.
Police traced the final signal to a row of abandoned textile buildings near the canal.
Mara sent officers immediately, but Julian did not follow.
At 11:18 p.m., the Helios merger documents were scheduled to be signed in the top-floor boardroom of Rossi Holdings.
If Sebastian completed the transaction, the company would be reorganized under emergency leadership provisions drafted months earlier.
Julian had approved those provisions.
He had believed they protected the empire if illness or death prevented him from serving.
Now the clauses looked like a blade he had sharpened for someone else.
"You cannot go to the boardroom alone," Elena said.
She sat in the hospital bed with the confirmed paternity report resting beside her.
"I will have Mara's officers and my attorneys."
"You will have people who still receive salaries from the company Sebastian controls."
"Malcolm is loyal."
"You said the same thing about Sebastian."
Julian had no answer.
Elena looked exhausted, but her voice remained steady.
"Let me speak to the board."
"No."
"They are using me to remove you."
"They already tried to end your pregnancy twice."
"Which is why hiding makes their story stronger."
"This is not a public relations problem."
"It became one when your mother called me a woman claiming to be your wife."
Julian paced to the window.
Below them, camera crews crowded the hospital entrance.
News helicopters circled above the city.
The photograph of Elena in her housekeeping uniform had become the image of the day.
Some viewers called her a victim.
Others called her an opportunist.
A financial network displayed a countdown to the Rossi board meeting as if the destruction of a marriage were a sporting event.
"I will not place you in front of them," Julian said.
"Then do not place me anywhere."
Elena pulled the blanket aside.
"I can choose for myself."
She tried to stand.
Pain crossed her face, and Julian reached her before her feet touched the floor.
"You are not leaving this bed."
"Stop deciding what I can survive."
"You nearly went into labor yesterday."
"Because people from your world came to kill my child."
"Our child."
The words came out sharper than he intended.
Elena stared at him.
Julian lowered his voice.
"Our child."
"Then trust her mother."
The request settled between them.
Julian had spent his life defining trust as access to information, authority, and signed agreements.
Elena meant something harder.
She meant allowing her to stand beside him when he could not guarantee the outcome.
"You can appear by secure video," he said.
"From this room."
"Unedited."
"Yes."
"And I decide what I say."
"Yes."
A faint smile touched her mouth.
"That sounded painful."
"It was unbearable."
At 11:42, Julian entered the Rossi headquarters through an underground garage.
The building rose above Milan like a blade of black glass.
Hundreds of reporters filled the plaza outside.
Inside, employees watched from corridors and elevators as Julian crossed the marble atrium.
Some looked relieved.
Others avoided his eyes.
Every screen displayed Sebastian's emergency statement.
MR. JULIAN ROSSI IS TEMPORARILY UNABLE TO PERFORM HIS DUTIES.
Julian stopped before the largest screen.
He removed his access badge and held it against the reader beside the private elevator.
The light flashed red.
His credentials had been revoked.
Malcolm Reed appeared from a side hallway carrying a legal folder.
"I warned them this would look like a coup."
"It is a coup."
"The board claims it is a health intervention."
"Do I look ill?"
Malcolm studied the bloodless exhaustion in Julian's face.
"You look like a man who has not slept in eight months."
"Open the elevator."
Malcolm used his badge.
Inside, he handed Julian a copy of the merger agreement.
"Sebastian added an annex this afternoon."
"Without my approval?"
"He claims the emergency provisions allow it."
Julian read the new language.
Upon completion, voting control would transfer temporarily to a five-member executive council.
Sebastian chaired the council.
Vittoria selected two members.
The remaining seats belonged to Helios representatives connected to Camila's family.
Julian would retain his title but lose authority over every major asset.
"He built a throne inside my signature," Julian said.
"There is more," Malcolm replied.
A separate clause allowed the council to acquire shares held by the Rossi family trust if the beneficiary was declared illegitimate, missing, or medically incapable.
The clause targeted Elena and the baby.
"Can we stop the signing?"
"Only with a board vote or proof of fraud."
"We have the recording."
"It establishes coercion but has not been authenticated for court."
"We have the DNA result."
"Two results, one false result, and a media narrative that calls all three corrupt."
"Then we have the truth."
Malcolm looked at him sadly.
"Truth is not a voting procedure."
The boardroom doors opened at 11:50.
Twenty directors sat around a long table of smoked glass.
Sebastian stood at the far end wearing a navy suit and Julian's calmest expression.
Vittoria sat to his right.
Camila appeared on a video screen from an undisclosed location.
She wore white.
The color made her look innocent.
"Julian," Sebastian said.
"I am glad you came."
"You revoked my access."
"For your protection."
"You forged a health leave statement."
"The board approved it."
Several directors looked down.
Julian walked to his chair.
Sebastian had placed medical documents there.
One was the false psychiatric report created for Elena.
Another was a new assessment claiming Julian suffered acute paranoia following marital trauma.
The signature belonged to Dr. Anton Keller of the Lugano clinic.
"You used the same doctor," Julian said.
"Consistency strengthens credibility," Sebastian replied.
"You imprisoned my wife."
"Your wife left you."
"We have you on recording."
"A recording edited by an investigative journalist who faked her own death."
"Sofia is alive."
"Then perhaps she can explain herself to the police."
Julian looked at Vittoria.
"You threatened Elena with my life."
Vittoria folded her hands.
"I tried to prevent an unstable young woman from destroying you."
"She found Marina Verde."
The room changed.
Several older directors knew the name.
One shifted in his chair.
Another reached for water.
Sebastian spoke quickly.
"A closed matter from another generation."
"Eleven men died."
"Settlements were paid."
"Because my mother replaced an order that would have stopped construction."
Vittoria's face did not move.
"You have no original order."
"My brother does."
Silence struck the room.
Sebastian's eyes narrowed.
"Alessio is dead."
"No."
Julian placed a recent photograph on the table.
"He is alive, and you shot him today."
The board erupted.
Questions collided across the table.
Vittoria stared at the photograph as if it were a ghost she had expected but never wanted to see.
At 11:56, the main screen flickered.
Elena appeared from her hospital room.
She wore no makeup and no jewelry except the silver locket.
The fetal monitor was visible behind her.
"My name is Elena Marquez Rossi," she said.
Every voice in the boardroom stopped.
"I am Julian's legal wife, and the child I am carrying is his daughter."
She held the two confirmed test results toward the camera.
"I did not abandon my marriage."
She described the power outage, Sebastian's car, Vittoria's threat, the Como villa, and the Lugano clinic.
She showed photographs of the chemical burns on her hands and the warning found beneath her hospital bracelet.
Then she played the recording.
Vittoria's voice filled the boardroom.
My son values loyalty above love, and we are going to show him that you have neither.
Sebastian's voice followed.
The child complicates the trust.
Then Camila spoke.
Do not harm the baby yet.
On the video wall, Camila's expression remained calm.
"That recording is fabricated," she said.
Elena looked directly at her image.
"Then come to the police station and prove it."
Camila disconnected.
At 11:59, Sebastian placed the merger contract before the board.
"We can investigate every allegation," he said.
"But failure to sign tonight triggers penalties that may cost this company billions."
"Then let it cost billions," Julian said.
"We will not build another empire on buried bodies."
A director named Henri Voss stood.
"The company has forty thousand employees."
"And eleven dead workers whose lives were priced as a legal inconvenience."
"This is not about history."
"It is always about history when the same people are still writing the contracts."
Midnight arrived.
Sebastian called the vote.
Ten directors voted to postpone.
Nine voted to sign.
The deciding vote belonged to Vittoria.
She looked at Julian for a long time.
"A mother must sometimes save a son from himself," she said.
She voted to sign.
Sebastian picked up the pen.
Julian moved toward him, but security officers entered the room.
They wore Rossi uniforms.
Malcolm whispered, "They are not ours."
Niko Vass stepped through the door behind them.
Sebastian signed the merger.
Every screen in the room flashed green.
TRANSACTION COMPLETE.
Then the lights went out.
A sharp sting touched Julian's neck.
He turned and saw Camila standing behind him, no longer on a screen.
She withdrew a small injector from beneath her white sleeve.
"You should have stayed at the hospital," she whispered.
Julian tried to reach her.
His legs failed.
He collapsed beside the boardroom table as alarms began to sound.
The last thing he saw was Vittoria rising from her chair.
May you like
She did not look shocked.
She looked relieved.
