Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO KEPT COPIES The former controller's name was Samuel Price.
He had left the company six months earlier.
Nobody knew where he was.
Daniel found him in a small apartment outside Chicago.
Samuel agreed to meet.
He arrived carrying a cardboard box.
“I knew this day would come.”
Mateo stared at the box.
“What is it?”
“Copies.”
Samuel placed it on the table.
Emails.
Invoices.
Internal memos.
Private messages.
And one conversation between Carlo and Eleanor.
Mateo read it.
His breathing slowed.
Carlo had written:
Once continuity is handled, I can unwind this without bringing Mateo into it.
Eleanor replied:
She is young and exhausted. Make him believe she needs rest.
Mateo closed his eyes.
Clara stood behind him.
She didn't need to read the message.
She already knew.
Samuel spoke quietly.
“Carlo wasn't planning to destroy the family.”
Mateo looked at him.
“He was planning to control it.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“She believed she was protecting his position.”
Clara stared at the documents.
“Protecting him from what?”
Samuel gave a tired smile.
“From becoming ordinary.”
The words hung in the room.
That was the real disease.
Not hunger.
Not poverty.
Not desperation.
Entitlement.
Carlo believed his birthright entitled him to power.
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Eleanor believed protecting her son justified anything.
And Clara's existence had threatened both beliefs.
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