Chapter 17 - Back to Business
Returning to Chicago meant returning to the daily grind, but the grind felt different now.
The Rossy Corporation was thriving. Without the constant drain of Carmine’s theft and the legal fees associated with defending criminal activities, the company was immensely profitable.
Chloe had her own massive office now, right next to Lorenzo’s. The door between them remained open all day.
It was a Tuesday afternoon. Chloe was aggressively typing an email to a vendor who had overcharged them by twelve cents per unit.
Matteo walked into her office, looking grim.
Chloe stopped typing. “Matteo, please tell me nobody has a gun.”
“No guns,” Matteo said. “But we have a situation in the lobby. Someone is demanding to see Lorenzo. Security stopped him, but he’s causing a scene.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s Carmine’s son. Leo.”
Chloe’s blood ran cold. Carmine was serving a twenty-year sentence. His son, Leo, had been away at college during the war, kept entirely out of the family business.
She stood up. “Don’t tell Lorenzo yet. I’ll handle it.”
“Chloe, Lorenzo explicitly said—”
“I know what he said. But if Lorenzo goes down there, Leo will see the man who put his father in prison. He’ll see the boss. If I go down there, he sees a CFO.”
Matteo hesitated, then nodded. “I’m right behind you.”
They took the elevator to the lobby. Leo was a young man, barely twenty, pacing furiously by the security desk. He looked desperate and angry.
“Leo Rossy,” Chloe said calmly, stepping out of the elevator.
Leo spun around. “Who are you? Where’s Lorenzo?”
“I’m Chloe Rossy. I’m the CFO.”
Leo’s face twisted. “The secretary who stole my father’s life. You put him in a cage!”
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“Your father stole from this company, threatened innocent women, and tried to murder my husband,” Chloe said, her voice firm but not unkind. “He put himself in a cage.”
Leo deflated slightly, the anger giving way to grief. “My mother’s bank accounts are frozen. The feds took the house. We have nothing. I can’t even pay my tuition.”
