Chapter 8
Lucius made the decision three days later.
He turned the warehouse records over to outside regulators and authorized unrestricted cooperation with the reopened safety investigation.
His corporate counsel warned him repeatedly.
The consequences could spread.
Civil claims.
Regulatory penalties.
Criminal exposure for individuals.
Insurance disputes.
Shareholder litigation.
The engineering report alone might not stop at the warehouse.
If investigators believed records had been altered, they would examine document systems across Barrone Maritime.
Lucius listened.
Then signed.
The family erupted.
Selene learned through her attorney and called it retaliation.
Tristan called it suicide.
Several capos accused Lucius of sacrificing a profitable company because of domestic anger.
Lucius did not respond to any of them.
He authorized an independent board committee to control the investigation so nobody could later claim he manipulated the findings.
That was the irreversible part.
The evidence was now outside Barrone hands.
Within forty-eight hours, regulators subpoenaed email servers.
The engineering firm produced Version A of the safety report.
The worker’s attorneys sought to reopen parts of the settlement.
Barrone Maritime’s insurer reserved its rights.
The company’s stock in a privately held investment structure lost value after lenders became nervous.
Lucius personally lost millions on paper.
He did not stop.
Then investigators found something worse.
The maintenance documents that caused the engineers to soften their warning had been fabricated.
The signatures belonged to real Barrone employees.
The dates did not.
Someone had created the appearance that steel reinforcement work had been completed before the second report.
It had not.
The false documents had been emailed from an executive account.
Tristan Hale’s.
Lucius stared at the forensic report.
For the first time, the evidence pointed directly at the man who had worn his crest.
Tristan denied it.
“I never sent that.”
“Your account did.”
“Then someone used it.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Tristan looked at him.
“You already believe I tried to replace you.”
“You wore the evidence.”
Tristan slammed both hands onto the table.
“I wore what Selene handed me!”
Then he stopped.
May you like
Lucius did not.
“What else did she hand you?”
