Chapter 4 - THE COMPANY BEHIND THE SIGNATURENorth Meridian Holdings existed only on paper.

That made it interesting.

The company had been formed eleven months earlier in Delaware.

Its registered agent was a corporate services firm.

Its listed manager was another LLC.

That LLC led to another.

Eventually, Nathan’s forensic team reached a name.

Leon Bellandi.

Clara’s sixth brother.

North Meridian was effectively controlled by Victor’s sons.

The transfer they wanted Clara to sign would have moved Teresa’s twenty-eight-percent interest into an entity controlled by the brothers.

Not Victor.

Not Clara.

The sons.

That mattered.

Because Bellandi Harbor Materials had been negotiating the sale of its waterfront terminal.

Purchase price:

$94 million.

Clara’s consent was required.

With her shares transferred into North Meridian, the brothers could approve the deal without her.

“What was Victor getting?” I asked Nathan.

“We don’t know yet.”

“We will.”

He gave me the look he used whenever I started sounding less like a client and more like the man I had spent years pretending not to be.

“Through lawyers, Marco.”

I almost smiled.

“Through lawyers.”

The police executed warrants on Victor’s home two days later.

The transfer document was found shredded in the fireplace.

Enough fragments survived.

So did Clara’s blood on the dining-room floor.

A broken chair.

A torn piece of her blouse.

And, underneath a cabinet, her phone.

Damaged.

Not destroyed.

Forensics recovered a voice memo.

Clara had started recording before entering the house.

Apparently, she had been more afraid than she admitted.

The recording began with Victor.

“You embarrass this family every time you say no.”

Then Anthony:

“You inherited something that should have gone to sons.”

Clara answered:

“Mom chose differently.”

A slap.

Furniture scraping.

Then Victor:

“You will sign tonight.”

Clara:

“No.”

Another brother:

“Think about the baby.”

Silence.

Then Clara’s voice, shaking but clear:

“That is exactly why I won’t.”

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That sentence stayed with me.

Even terrified, she had been protecting our child from something I still did not fully understand.