Chapter 4

Elena did not go to school the following morning.

She sat at the dining table, repeatedly refreshing the competition website as she waited for the committee to respond to the appeal she had submitted the night before.

“Will they look at my evidence?” she asked.

“They will, but they won’t reach a decision immediately.”

I had already instructed my attorneys to send legal preservation notices to the school, the competition committee, and the Leeds Foundation.

From that moment forward, any attempt to delete an email, alter a document, or change a system record would leave evidence behind.

Elena was still uneasy.

“What if Sabrina uses my proposal in the preliminary round today?”

“Let her.”

Elena looked up at me.

“You created the entire plan. All she has is an edited file. The judges only need to ask a few questions before they realize who truly understands the project.”

“But Dante and the others will help her.”

“They can prepare answers for her. They cannot put your ability inside her head.”

I walked to Elena and placed the documents supporting her appeal into a folder.

“You don’t need to kneel to anyone today, and you don’t need to beg them to return what belongs to you. All you need to do is preserve the evidence.”

Elena nodded.

Before leaving the estate, I instructed Anthony to keep two members of his security team with her.

At nine that morning, I arrived at the headquarters of Leeds Group.

The special board meeting had been scheduled in the executive conference room on the top floor. When the elevator doors opened, more than a dozen directors and senior executives were already waiting in the corridor.

No one had entered the room.

Only when Dante emerged from another elevator with Luca, Matteo, and Nico did the conversation stop. The directors and executives followed the four brothers into the conference room.

Dante did not slow as he passed me.

“I’m glad you decided to come.”

His tone was polite, but he spoke as if he were welcoming an ordinary shareholder.

I gave him no response and followed them inside.

Dante took the seat at the head of the long conference table.

That chair had once belonged to me.

My seat had been placed at the opposite end of the room. A glass of water and a document prepared for my signature were the only things waiting in front of it.

Once the meeting began, Matteo activated the projector.

The screen displayed Leeds Group’s financial performance over the previous three years.

“Since the four of us assumed control of the company’s core divisions, revenue has increased by forty-two percent, and the Brooklyn development has entered its second phase.”

Matteo advanced to the next slide.

“Over the past two days, however, a private family dispute has seriously disrupted corporate operations. Sixteen company and trust-owned vehicles have been reclaimed without notice, the personal subsidiary accounts used by several senior executives have been suspended, and the security team at the Greenwich property has been forcibly replaced.”

The directors turned toward me.

One of them spoke first.

“Catherine, the company cannot be used as a weapon in a family dispute.”

“The vehicles belong to the Leeds Holding Trust, and the suspended accounts were personal subsidiary accounts. None of them are corporate assets.”

“But the people using those assets are members of the company’s core leadership,” another director said. “If executives can lose the resources they depend on every time there is a disagreement at home, how can shareholders have confidence in the stability of this company?”

Luca placed a stack of photographs on the table.

They showed the boxes that had been removed from the lake house the previous day.

“Sabrina only intended to stay for a few weeks. Because Elena refused to share one unused room, my mother brought in an outside security team and had us removed from the property.”

“That house belongs to Elena,” I said.

“It is still legally held by the Leeds Holding Trust,” Matteo corrected. “Elena has not yet become its legal owner.”

“I am the trustee.”

“That is precisely what we are here to discuss.”

Dante finally spoke.

He pushed a document toward the center of the table.

“Allowing one person to control both the trust assets and the company’s executive management has created a serious conflict of interest. Whenever Elena dislikes a decision, you can reclaim the vehicles, residences, and other resources used by the company’s senior executives.”

He rested one hand on the document.

“That is why the Leeds Holding Trust needs an independent management committee. You should no longer have unilateral authority over the distribution of its assets.”

I opened the document in front of me.

They were not merely demanding the creation of a new trust committee. They wanted me to surrender my seat on the board, my authority to appoint and remove senior executives, and my oversight of the Leeds Foundation.

My four adopted sons would divide control of Leeds Group, the foundation, the trust properties, and the remaining assets among themselves.

Once I signed, they would have the legal power to decide what Elena was still permitted to own.

“How long have you been preparing this?” I asked.

Silence settled over the room for a moment.

Dante did not answer directly.

“This is not a personal attack. We are trying to establish a more professional management structure.”

“You were contacting the directors before yesterday.”

“We had a responsibility to prepare for possible risks.”

I looked around the table.

Not one person appeared surprised.

They had all known what this meeting was truly about.

Seventeen years earlier, I had walked away from the underworld and temporarily buried the Moretti name. Under the public identity of Catherine Leeds, I founded Leeds Group.

It was the first company I placed fully in the light, and it represented the cleanest, most public-facing part of the vast empire built under the Moretti name.

To separate Leeds Group from my past and attract employees and long-term institutional investors, I gradually diluted my personal ownership.

I now held only two percent of its shares in my own name.

The Leeds Holding Trust, however, still owned twenty-eight percent of the company, and I remained its sole trustee. Unless I signed the document in front of me, I retained the legal authority to vote those shares and determine what Elena would one day inherit.

The four men sitting across from me were not merely trying to take my personal two percent.

They wanted me to resign from the board, surrender the trust’s voting rights, and relinquish control over the foundation, executive appointments, and trust assets.

If I signed, they would gain legal control of Leeds Group and the power to decide what Elena deserved to keep.

What they did not understand was that even if they took the entire company, they would still be stealing only one public-facing business from me.

They had mistaken the portion of my power I allowed them to see for everything I possessed.

An older director cleared his throat.

“Catherine, you stepped away from daily management years ago. Whatever else has happened, Dante and the others deserve credit for the company’s growth.”

Another director spoke next.

“This arrangement will not affect your lifestyle. You will remain the founder of Leeds Group and their mother. The company will preserve your honorary position and all of your personal benefits.”

I looked from one man to the other.

“So you intend to take the company I created and then use my own money to support me?”