Chương 7 - THE WOMAN THEY TRIED TO TURN INTO A SCANDAL
By 9:00 a.m. the next morning, Paige Winslow had been called six different kinds of mistress by strangers on the internet.
By 9:20, someone had posted photographs of her apartment building.
By 9:40, her former classmates were messaging.
By 10:00, the gym had removed her from the staff schedule “pending review.”
By 10:12, Paige stopped reading.
She sat inside Gabriel’s conference room wearing a navy dress borrowed from a hotel boutique and listened to three lawyers discuss her as though she were a weather event.
“We issue a denial.”
“No,” Paige said.
The lawyers stopped.
The oldest one looked at Gabriel.
Not Paige.
Gabriel noticed.
“Ask her.”
The lawyer cleared his throat.
“Miss Winslow, we recommend a denial.”
“Of what?”
“That you received professional benefits due to a personal relationship with Mr. Moretti.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then denial is straightforward.”
Paige looked at Gabriel.
“Are we in a personal relationship?”
The room became spectacularly uncomfortable.
Nico stared at the wall.
One lawyer looked at his shoes.
Gabriel held Paige’s gaze.
“No.”
The answer should have relieved her.
Instead it created a small, unreasonable ache.
She ignored it.
“Then say that. But don’t call me a liar, a victim, or an innocent girl seduced by the scary CEO.”
The lawyer adjusted his glasses.
“No one suggested—”
“The article does.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“What do you want to say?”
Paige thought.
“The truth.”
“Which part?”
“That I was appointed temporarily to review document fraud because someone used my identity and work to forge internal records.”
The lawyers erupted at once.
“Absolutely not.”
“That confirms an internal investigation.”
“It exposes liability.”
“It could compromise—”
Gabriel raised one hand.
Silence.
Paige continued.
“I don’t name suspects. I don’t mention Kevin. I don’t mention the debt scheme yet. I say my appointment is documented, temporary, and related to forensic review.”
One lawyer frowned.
“That invites questions about your qualifications.”
“I have a design degree.”
“You’re an administrative assistant.”
“I was.”
Gabriel’s eyes flickered.
Paige saw it.
“Do not promote me again.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face did.”
Nico looked away quickly.
Paige continued.
“I can explain how visual document analysis works without revealing evidence.”
The oldest lawyer looked skeptical.
“Why should the public believe you?”
Paige felt something inside her harden.
“Because I’m going to stand in front of a camera and let them decide.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“No.”
She turned.
“Excuse me?”
“No cameras.”
“We discussed this.”
“We discussed boundaries. We did not discuss you walking into a press pack while someone is actively targeting you.”
“That is my reputation.”
“It is also a security problem.”
“Then solve the security problem.”
The lawyers became fascinated by their notes.
Gabriel stood.
Paige stood too.
They faced each other across the table.
“You are not going outside this building today,” he said.
She stared at him.
“Rule three.”
His jaw tightened.
“No changing my job without consent.”
“Wrong rule.”
“Then rule four. No lying.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Rule one. No using power to control me.”
“That wasn’t exactly—”
“It is now.”
Nico coughed.
Gabriel looked at him.
Nico said, “She has a point.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“I pay you.”
“Yes.”
“Remember that.”
“I remember everything.”
Paige nearly smiled.
Gabriel exhaled.
“Fine. Controlled press statement. Inside the building. No questions.”
“Three questions.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Fine.”
The compromise became news by noon.
A small podium was set up in the Moretti Logistics lobby.
Paige stood beneath the company logo she had never liked and looked at twenty reporters.
Gabriel remained thirty feet away.
Not beside her.
That was deliberate.
She had asked.
“My name is Paige Winslow,” she began.
Cameras flashed.
“I have worked for Moretti Logistics for eight months. Yesterday I accepted a temporary thirty-day appointment as a documentation and visual compliance consultant.”
A reporter shouted, “Are you romantically involved with Gabriel Moretti?”
Paige almost laughed.
Straight to it.
“No.”
“Did he pay your private debt?”
“No.”
Technically and actually true.
Another question.
“Why were you at the Bellmont Hotel while Mr. Moretti was there?”
“Because my apartment had been illegally entered and company security arranged temporary lodging.”
More cameras.
Paige continued before they could interrupt.
“My temporary appointment is related to suspected document fraud involving materials I originally designed. My role is to identify visual and production inconsistencies. I will not discuss the investigation further.”
A woman near the front called out, “Did you call Mr. Moretti honey?”
Paige froze.
Of all possible questions.
The lobby went silent.
Behind the cameras, Nico lowered his head.
Gabriel’s expression became unreadable.
Paige looked directly at the reporter.
“Yes.”
Laughter broke through the room.
Even some cameras shook.
Paige smiled for the first time in two days.
“It was an accident.”
“Did he promote you because of it?”
“No. Though I admit the timing is unfortunate.”
More laughter.
The tension changed.
Not gone.
But human.
Paige stepped away from the podium.
As she passed Gabriel, he leaned slightly closer.
“You enjoyed that.”
“Immensely.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Here you go, honey.”
His eyes flashed.
She kept walking.
For thirty seconds, Paige felt like herself again.
Then the board meeting began.
Cesare Moretti arrived at 1:00 p.m.
He was seventy-one, tall, silver-haired, and carried a black cane he did not appear to need.
The moment he entered the executive floor, Paige understood why people had trusted him.
He looked paternal.
Measured.
Elegant.
The kind of man newspapers described as “old Philadelphia.”
He greeted reception staff by name.
He asked Nico about his mother.
He embraced Gabriel.
That was the worst part.
“My boy.”
Gabriel allowed the embrace.
Barely.
“Uncle.”
Cesare stepped back.
“So much noise.”
His eyes moved to Paige.
“Miss Winslow.”
She nodded.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Please. There are too many Mr. Morettis in this building already.”
His smile was warm.
His eyes were not.
Board members entered behind him.
Luca came last.
He gave Paige the smallest nod.
The meeting was supposedly about reputational damage.
In reality, everyone in the room knew it was about control.
Paige sat at the far end beside outside counsel.
Gabriel occupied the chair at the head.
Cesare sat to his right.
For twenty minutes, directors discussed press exposure, internal audit concerns, and lender anxiety.
Then Cesare spoke.
“I fear we are avoiding the obvious.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Cesare folded his hands over the cane.
“Our chief executive has placed an indebted junior employee into a sensitive investigative position following a private meeting.”
Paige felt heat rise.
Gabriel’s voice was cold.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Cesare smiled sadly.
“That is exactly the problem.”
He looked around the table.
“We cannot govern by fear.”
Paige almost admired the performance.
Almost.
Cesare continued.
“Miss Winslow may be entirely innocent. I hope she is. But appearance matters.”
Paige spoke.
“So does evidence.”
Every head turned.
Cesare looked delighted.
“Of course.”
Paige opened her laptop.
“The forged Harbor Light documents share a production profile with materials commissioned through your private office.”
Silence.
Luca shifted.
Cesare did not.
“Do they?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds serious.”
“It is.”
“Does it prove I created them?”
“No.”
“Then perhaps we should avoid implication.”
Paige met his eyes.
“I agree.”
She clicked.
A screen displayed two signatures.
Nicholas Moretti.
One real.
One forged.
“The forged signatures are composites built from multiple authentic documents.”
Cesare looked at Gabriel.
“You’re allowing an administrative employee to display Nicholas’s private signature?”
Gabriel’s voice was calm.
“She is a consultant.”
“Today.”
Paige continued.
“Only people with access to archived family and corporate documents could have built this composite.”
A director asked, “How many people had access?”
Gabriel answered.
“Eleven.”
Cesare smiled.
“Then I’m one of eleven.”
Paige clicked again.
A list of document requests appeared.
“One of four who accessed all three source documents used in the composite.”
The room shifted.
Luca’s face tightened.
Cesare remained composed.
“Still not proof.”
“No.”
Paige clicked again.
“Which is why I didn’t call this meeting.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Cesare looked at him.
Then the boardroom doors opened.
Sylvia entered with two lawyers.
Luca went pale.
Cesare did not move.
Sylvia sat.
Her hands shook.
She described the debt list.
The favors.
Luca’s requests.
Megan’s loan.
The room changed minute by minute.
By the end, nobody was looking at Paige.
They were looking at Luca.
He stood.
“This is absurd.”
Gabriel said, “Sit down.”
“I will not be interrogated by clerical staff.”
Paige’s anger sharpened.
“Clerical staff built your documents.”
Luca looked at her.
For the first time, the charm vanished.
“You think you understand this family because he gave you a badge?”
Paige held his gaze.
“No.”
She closed the laptop.
“I understand typography.”
A laugh escaped one director before he could stop it.
Luca’s face darkened.
Cesare tapped his cane once.
The room silenced.
Then he looked at Gabriel with apparent regret.
“This company cannot survive another week of this.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“What are you proposing?”
“A temporary leave.”
The words landed exactly as planned.
Luca stared at Cesare.
Even he had not expected the move.
Cesare continued.
“Gabriel steps aside until the investigation is complete. The board appoints an interim chief executive.”
“Luca?” one director asked.
Cesare sighed.
“No. That would be inappropriate given today’s allegations.”
Paige understood.
Cesare was sacrificing Luca.
Gabriel understood too.
“Who, then?”
Cesare placed both hands on the cane.
“Me.”
Silence.
The old man smiled faintly.
“Only until order is restored.”
Gabriel’s expression revealed nothing.
The vote happened fifteen minutes later.
Six to five.
Gabriel was placed on temporary administrative leave.
Cesare became interim chief executive.
His first act took less than sixty seconds.
He looked at Paige.
“Miss Winslow, your temporary appointment is terminated effective immediately.”
Gabriel stood.
Cesare raised a hand.
“You are on leave, Gabriel.”
Paige felt every eye in the room.
This was the moment Cesare expected tears.
Anger.
Fear.
Instead Paige picked up her laptop.
“Understood.”
She walked to the door.
Cesare’s voice followed.
“Security will escort you downstairs.”
Paige turned.
“No need.”
She looked at Gabriel.
Not pleading.
Not asking permission.
Just looking.
He gave the smallest nod.
Her choice.
She left.
The fifth-floor bullpen went silent when she appeared carrying her bag.
Again.
Sylvia was still upstairs.
Thirty coworkers stared.
Paige reached her cubicle.
She picked up Buster’s photograph.
Then the desk phone rang.
Everyone jumped.
Paige stared at it.
She answered.
“Moretti Logistics.”
A familiar voice said, “You forgot something.”
Kevin.
Paige’s heartbeat changed.
“What?”
“The last recording.”
“Where?”
“I never put it in the locker.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s the only reason I’m still alive.”
Paige lowered her voice.
“What’s on it?”
Kevin breathed once.
Then said, “Cesare admitting what happened to Nicholas.”
Paige closed her eyes.
“Where are you?”
Kevin’s answer came immediately.
“Outside.”
She looked toward the lobby windows.
A man in a dark coat stood across the street.
Kevin.
Alive.
May you like
Holding a small recorder in one hand.
And walking directly toward the building Cesare Moretti had just taken.
