I thought through my organization systematically, methodically.
"Who has access to Piero's schedule?"
Rocco answered, "His assistant, Rosa. But she's been with the family for twenty years."
"Who knows security protocols?"
"Giulio. But he's proven loyal repeatedly."
"Who handles finances and would understand offshore accounts?"
A pause. Then Rocco said quietly, "Matteo."
I went very still. "Matteo."
Matteo. My financial operations chief. Trusted for four years. He had access to everything—accounts, schedules, internal communications.
"Pull up Matteo's financial records," I ordered. "All of them."
"Boss, Matteo's been with us for—"
"Pull them up. Now."
Rocco hesitated, then complied. Banking records, investments, personal accounts flooded the screen.
"Look for connections to Viktor or anyone in his organization."
Rocco searched. Minutes passed, marked by the tap of keys, the hum of the laptop's fan.
Then: "Boss. Matteo's sister married a Russian national five years ago. Dmitri Volkov."
"Who's Dmitri Volkov?"
More typing. "Viktor Kozlov's nephew. A low-level operative in Viktor's organization."
The connection. Family ties. Leverage. And the timeline added up; Viktor could have gotten to Matteo, forced him to open that bank account three years ago. But why start communicating with him now? Telling him about my operations, movements,now?
I connected the dots out loud. "Viktor has been using Matteo through his brother-in-law. Threatened his sister, maybe. Or paid him off. Either way, Matteo had access to everything Piero had access to."
"Financial systems, schedules, security protocols," Rocco confirmed, pulling up access logs. "Matteo could have mimicked Piero's digital footprint. Created the fake accounts. Signed documents with forged credentials."
"But why frame Piero specifically?" Paola asked. "Why not just feed information without pointing fingers?"
I realized, "Because Viktor wanted me to turn on my own brother. Wanted to destroy our family from the inside. Divide and conquer."
The strategy was elegant. Vicious. Exactly Viktor's style.
"Wait." Paola looked between us. "These documents about Piero—about Shadowking—where did they come from? Were they in what Bianca brought from my father?"
Rocco checked the file metadata. "Yes. They were mixed in with Giovanni's business records. Looks like... Giovanni's accountant had been corresponding with who he thought was Piero about some joint financial ventures between the Lombardo and Monti families."
Understanding clicked. "Matteo was communicating with Giovanni's people using Piero's identity. Setting up these fake accounts, these transactions. Giovanni's team documented everything, not knowing they were dealing with an imposter."
"So when Bianca grabbed my father's files, she unknowingly included evidence of Viktor's frame job," Paola said.
"Exactly. Viktor probably had no idea these documents existed in Giovanni's files—he was using Matteo to create the Shadowking persona, but Giovanni's meticulous recordkeeping accidentally documented the deception. We interrupted his verification process."
"Which means Viktor handed us proof of his own conspiracy," Rocco said with something like admiration. "He was so focused on the documents that would hurt you, he didn't realize Bianca was also bringing evidence that would expose his plant."
