Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
Mateo pulled out the heavy leather chair at the absolute head of the table, guiding Adelaide into it with effortless grace before taking his own seat beside her. He leaned back, resting his hands casually on the armrests, his dark eyes fixing upon Rockford like a predator observing an insect under glass.
"Please," Mateo said, his voice smooth and cold as ice. "Eat. My chef prepared a six-course meal specifically for this occasion."
None of them touched their cutlery.
"Adelaide..." Evelyn stammered, her voice high and erratic as she tried to regain her footing. "What is the meaning of this? Why are you dressed like that? Where... where have you been staying?"
"In the master suite of the east wing," Adelaide replied coolly, taking a small sip of crystal-clear water from her glass. "It’s significantly larger than the maid's quarters behind the kitchen that you assigned to me three years ago, Evelyn."
Chloe’s shock instantly curdled into bitter, ugly rage. "You little snake!" she spat out, leaning forward over the table. "You were supposed to be negotiating our debt! You've been playing dress-up in a mafia compound while Daddy has been going out of his mind with worry!"
"Rockford wasn't going out of his mind with worry, Chloe," Adelaide said, turning her sharp gaze onto her stepsister. "He was going out of his mind trying to figure out why his offshore transfers to Grand Cayman were rejected by the central clearing bank at four o'clock yesterday afternoon."
Rockford went entirely rigid. The color drained from his face so fast he looked as though he might faint directly into his soup bowl.
"What... what are you talking about?" Rockford whispered, his hands trembling violently.
"I’m talking about Crestview Holdings LLC," Adelaide said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp precision that held the entire room spellbound. "The shell company Evelyn registered under her maiden name to hide twelve million dollars of Moretti money. I’m also talking about the Monaco Premier Account holding four million dollars of kickbacks that Chloe stole from Jones Financial marketing vendors."
"How... how do you know about those?" Evelyn gasped, grabbing her chest as if she couldn't breathe.
"Because I built the software you used to try to hide them," Adelaide said softly, leaning back against her leather chair. "And three days ago, I gave Mateo the decryption keys to every single one of your private servers."
Rockford slammed his fists onto the table, standing up so fast his chair skidded back against the hardwood floor. "You traitor! You ungrateful little bitch! I gave you a roof over your head after your mother died! I fed you! I clothed you!"
Before Rockford could take another breath, Mateo moved.
In a fraction of a second, Mateo stood up, pulled a heavy, black matte semi-automatic pistol from his jacket, and laid it with a loud, sickening thud directly on the mahogany table in front of him.
He did not point it. He simply rested his hand over the steel casing, his dark eyes turning so terrifyingly cold that the ambient temperature in the room seemed to drop by ten degrees.
"Sit down, Rockford," Mateo said, his voice dangerously quiet. "If you raise your voice to my fiancée again in this house, you will not leave this room on your feet."
The word echoed through the grand dining room like a thunderclap.
Fiancée.
Evelyn gasped, clutching her necklace. Chloe stared at Adelaide with wide, unblinking eyes filled with absolute disbelief and jealousy.
"Fiancée...?" Rockford choked out, slowly sinking back into his chair, his eyes fixed on the black handgun resting on the table.
"Adelaide is no longer associated with Jones Financial," Mateo stated, his tone carrying the finality of a judge passing a death sentence. "And as of six o'clock this evening, the Moretti family has acquired eighty-five percent of Jones Financial’s outstanding institutional debt. We are now your primary creditor, your primary landlord, and your sole legal authority."
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Mateo leaned forward, resting both hands on the table, looking down at the broken, trembling family.
"You came here tonight expecting to trade a daughter you considered worthless to save your skin," Mateo said softly. "Instead, you have just handed over everything you own to the woman you tried to destroy."
