Chapter 2 - The Man Who Wanted Her Fired
Gabriel Moretti had learned years ago that people revealed themselves most clearly when they believed they had already won.
So he did not confront Victor.
Not yet.
At 8:00 the next morning, Gabriel entered Moretti Tower exactly as usual.
Victor met him in the lobby.
“Morning.”
Gabriel handed his coat to an assistant.
“Morning.”
“About the cafeteria employee—”
“Sophie Miller.”
Victor nodded.
“HR can process the termination today.”
Gabriel continued toward the elevators.
“No.”
Victor followed.
“No?”
“Put the investigation on hold.”
“Why?”
Gabriel stopped.
Employees crossing the marble lobby instinctively changed direction around them.
Gabriel looked directly at Victor.
“Do I need a reason?”
Victor's expression immediately softened.
“Of course not.”
“Good.”
Gabriel entered the elevator.
Victor did not.
The doors closed.
Only then did Gabriel allow himself to breathe differently.
Victor had lied.
Not directly.
That was what made it interesting.
He had presented Sophie as an unknown thief despite already knowing about her request to redistribute leftover food.
Why?
Gabriel spent the morning doing something Victor would never have expected.
He went to Human Resources himself.
The director nearly stood when he entered.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“I need Sophie Miller's complete employment file.”
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel was reading it.
Sophie Miller.
Age thirty-one.
Single mother.
Emergency contact: Lily Miller, daughter, through designated guardian.
Five years employed.
No disciplinary actions.
Perfect attendance except for four absences connected to her daughter's illness two years earlier.
Three employee commendations.
One written proposal submitted twenty-two days ago.
Gabriel opened it.
FOOD RECOVERY PILOT PROGRAM.
Sophie had researched local food-safety regulations.
She had listed methods for labeling meals.
She had identified community shelters willing to accept excess food.
She had calculated annual cafeteria waste.
Gabriel stopped at the number.
$83,700.
Not twelve hundred.
Moretti Tower was discarding more than eighty thousand dollars in edible food every year.
Sophie had proposed redistributing it.
The proposal had been rejected.
Approved rejection:
VICTOR SERNO.
Gabriel leaned back.
Victor did not run cafeteria operations.
He ran security.
Why had the proposal reached him?
Gabriel requested the email chain.
That was where the story changed again.
Sophie had originally sent the proposal to cafeteria management.
Management forwarded it to operations.
Operations supported a thirty-day trial.
Legal had raised manageable concerns but offered solutions.
Then Victor inserted himself into the discussion.
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Destroy all surplus inventory.
No exceptions.
Gabriel read the message twice.
His phone rang.
Victor.
Gabriel let it ring.
Another document caught his attention.
A complaint.
Submitted anonymously eighteen days ago.
It alleged that a cafeteria employee was “removing high-value inventory for personal benefit.”
The complaint had triggered surveillance.
Gabriel examined the metadata.
The anonymous report originated from a terminal inside the executive security suite.
Victor’s floor.
Gabriel’s expression went cold.
Someone knocked.
His assistant entered.
“Mr. Moretti? There's a Sophie Miller downstairs.”
Gabriel looked at the clock.
10:42.
“She says she was told to report directly to you.”
“I didn't tell her that.”
His assistant hesitated.
“Security says Mr. Serno did.”
Gabriel stood.
“Where is she?”
“Interview Room Three.”
Gabriel was moving before she finished.
Interview Room Three had no exterior windows.
When Gabriel opened the door, Sophie sat alone at a metal table.
She stood immediately.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Who brought you here?”
“A security officer.”
“Name?”
“I don't know.”
“Did Victor speak to you?”
“He called me at six.”
Gabriel shut the door.
“What did he say?”
“That you changed your mind.”
“I didn't.”
Sophie went pale.
Gabriel sat across from her.
“Tell me exactly what he said.”
She hesitated.
“He said you wanted a signed confession before deciding whether to involve police.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it wasn't true.”
“What wasn't true?”
Sophie opened her purse and removed a folded document.
Gabriel read it.
The statement claimed Sophie had stolen food, office supplies, cash, and employee property totaling more than $9,000.
“None of this happened?”
“No.”
“The food did.”
“Yes. The food scheduled for disposal. Nothing else.”
Gabriel looked at the bottom.
There was a signature line.
Above it, another paragraph stated Sophie agreed to immediate termination and waived all claims against Moretti Holdings.
Now Gabriel understood part of it.
Someone wanted Sophie gone quietly.
“Why would Victor care about you?”
“I don't know.”
“Think.”
“I have.”
“Think harder.”
Sophie looked frightened.
Then something shifted in her expression.
“There was one thing.”
Gabriel waited.
“About six weeks ago, I found something.”
“What?”
“A phone.”
“Where?”
“Under a cafeteria table.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Whose?”
“I didn't know.”
“What did you do with it?”
“I brought it to security.”
“Victor?”
“One of his men.”
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
Sophie paused.
“But the screen lit up when I picked it up.”
Gabriel watched her carefully.
“What did you see?”
“A message.”
“What did it say?”
Sophie looked toward the mirrored glass.
Gabriel followed her gaze.
The interview room had a surveillance window.
He stood and opened the door.
Nobody was outside.
He returned.
“Sophie.”
She whispered the words.
“Dock 14. Thursday. Move everything before G.M. finds out.”
Gabriel became perfectly still.
G.M.
Gabriel Moretti.
“Anything else?”
“There was a number beneath it.”
“Do you remember it?”
“No.”
“Who did you give the phone to?”
“A guard named Paul.”
Gabriel knew every senior security officer.
There was no Paul.
“What did he look like?”
Sophie described him.
Gabriel knew exactly who she meant.
Paolo Rizzi.
Victor’s cousin.
He had worked temporary security for three weeks.
Then disappeared.
Gabriel stood.
“Sophie, you're leaving.”
“But—”
“Not through the lobby.”
He called a number.
“Marco. Interview Three. Now.”
A man Gabriel trusted arrived ninety seconds later.
Gabriel gave quiet instructions.
“Take Ms. Miller home. Stay nearby.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I don't need protection.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You found a phone containing a message about moving something before I discovered it. Six weeks later, the man responsible for security is trying to force you to sign a false confession.”
Her face drained.
“This isn't about food.”
“No.”
“What was at Dock 14?”
“That is what I'm going to find out.”
Sophie reached the doorway.
Then stopped.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes?”
“Yesterday, you asked who I was feeding.”
Gabriel waited.
“The people downstairs aren't stealing from you.”
“I know.”
“They're just struggling.”
“I know.”
“If this gets worse, please don't punish them because of me.”
Gabriel studied her for several seconds.
Even now, Sophie was worried about everyone except herself.
“I won't.”
She left.
Gabriel returned to his office.
Victor was waiting inside.
“You've been busy,” Victor said.
Gabriel walked to his desk.
“So have you.”
Victor smiled.
“I heard Sophie refused to sign.”
Gabriel looked up.
That was a mistake.
Victor realized it immediately.
Gabriel had never told him Sophie had been interviewed.
“How did you know?”
Silence.
Victor recovered quickly.
“Security report.”
“Which officer?”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Gabriel walked around the desk.
“Five years ago, my father told me something about you.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“He said you were loyal.”
“I am.”
“He also said loyalty becomes dangerous when a man starts believing he's indispensable.”
Victor said nothing.
Gabriel placed Sophie’s proposal on the desk.
Then the anonymous complaint.
Then the false confession.
“You knew.”
“About the food?”
“Before you installed the cameras.”
Victor glanced at the papers.
“She violated policy.”
“You wanted her fired before the cameras existed.”
“She was a liability.”
“To whom?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Dock 14.”
For the first time, Victor lost control of his face.
Only for half a second.
But Gabriel saw it.
“What about it?”
Gabriel smiled without warmth.
“That's what I'm wondering.”
Victor straightened.
“If you're accusing me of something—”
“I haven't accused you of anything.”
“Then what is this?”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“A chance.”
“For what?”
“To decide whether you want to lie to me again.”
The room became silent.
Victor looked toward the windows.
Then back.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Wrong decision.”
Victor left ten minutes later.
Gabriel waited until the elevator doors closed.
Then he called his oldest friend, Detective Anthony Russo.
“I need everything on Dock 14 for the last three months.”
Russo sighed.
“You know I'm a cop, right?”
“Frequently.”
“What am I looking for?”
“I don't know yet.”
“That is not how investigations work.”
“It is today.”
Russo was silent.
Then:
“Give me an hour.”
Gabriel ended the call.
Forty-three minutes later, his phone rang.
Russo did not bother saying hello.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
“You need to get Sophie Miller somewhere safe.”
Gabriel stood.
“Why?”
“I pulled port records.”
“And?”
“Six weeks ago, the night before Sophie found that phone, a refrigerated container passed through Dock 14 under one of your subsidiaries.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What was inside?”
“Officially? Imported olive oil.”
“And unofficially?”
“That's the problem.”
Russo paused.
“The container was empty when federal inspectors opened it.”
Gabriel walked toward the window.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It gets worse.”
“How?”
“The customs officer who signed the original inspection disappeared four days later.”
Gabriel's grip tightened around the phone.
“And there's one more thing.”
“What?”
“The shipping authorization was approved using your digital signature.”
Gabriel said nothing.
He had never approved it.
Someone had been moving cargo through his company.
Someone with access to his credentials.
Someone who needed Sophie discredited before she remembered what she had seen.
Gabriel immediately called Marco.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then Sophie.
Nothing.
A third number called him.
Unknown.
Gabriel answered.
A man's voice said only five words.
“You should've fired the girl.”
The line went dead.
May you like
And forty-six floors below Gabriel Moretti, a black SUV was already pulling away from the curb with Sophie Miller inside.
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