Chapter 3 - The Audit Notice
By Monday morning, the academic grind had pushed Dante Greco and his arrogant fixer completely out of my head. I was sitting in the third-row tier of the university lecture hall, a massive stack of property law casebooks piled in front of me, when my phone buzzed violently against the wooden desk.
An email notification.
Sender: Corporate Compliance & Restructuring Division, Meridian Holdings.
I frowned, tapping the screen. Meridian Holdings was the multi-billion-dollar parent conglomerate that secretly owned nearly forty percent of the commercial real estate in downtown Boston—including the block where La Luna Rossa stood.
Subject: Urgent Audit Notice – La Luna Rossa Lease & Operations.
My heart skipped a beat. I opened the attachment.
It wasn't a standard corporate memo. It was a formal notification that Meridian Holdings was initiating an immediate, unscheduled operational audit of La Luna Rossa, specifically targeting labor compliance, supplier contracts, and management oversight. And at the bottom of the document, in bold, unyielding font, was a handwritten electronic signature annotation:
Requested personally by D. Greco, Managing Director.
“Are you kidding me?” I whispered under my breath, slamming my laptop shut with a soft thud that made the student sitting next to me jump.
Dante Greco hadn't forgotten about Friday night. He was using a corporate sledgehammer just to find out where I worked, who I was, and how to get me back into his orbit.
Twenty minutes later, the lecture ended, and I didn't bother packing my books properly; I shoved them into my backpack, marched out of the hall, and dialed a number I hadn't used in six months.
It connected on the second ring.
“Nora?” A smooth, deep voice answered from the other end. It was Viktor Vance, my cousin and the senior executive vice-president of Meridian Holdings. “To what do I owe the honor? Did someone cut you off in traffic, or did you finally decide to drop this little waitress experiment and take your rightful seat on the board?”
“Cut the corporate charm, Viktor,” I snapped as I power-walked across the quad toward the subway station. “Why is Dante Greco initiating an emergency audit on La Luna Rossa?”
Viktor went quiet for a second. I could hear the faint sound of a keyboard clicking in a high-rise office overlooking the Boston harbor.
“Ah,” Viktor said, a faint chuckle in his tone. “Dante Greco. The aggressive real estate heir. He’s been trying to buy out the commercial block on Hanover Street for six months to build a luxury boutique hotel complex. Why? Did he step on your toes?”
“He’s using Meridian’s compliance division as a personal stalking horse just because I didn't bow down to his fixer on Friday night,” I said, my blood boiling. “Cancel the audit, Viktor.”
“Nora, you know I can’t just cancel a corporate directive from a major stakeholder without cause,” Viktor sighed. “Dante owns a significant minority share in the North End development trust. If he wants an audit, our legal team has to provide it—unless there’s a material conflict of interest.”
“There is a conflict,” I said coldly. “He’s harassing a private citizen who happens to work there part-time to pay for her textbooks.”
“Then why don't you handle it yourself?” Viktor suggested smoothly. “You’re the majority controlling shareholder of Meridian’s parent trust, Nora. If you want Dante Greco to back off, walk into his office on Federal Street, flash your corporate credentials, and remind him who actually owns the buildings he’s trying to bulldoze.”
“No,” I said instantly. “I like my apron. I like my independence. If I walk into his boardroom as the owner of Meridian, the game changes entirely.”
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“Then what do you propose, little cousin?” Viktor asked, amusement dripping from every word.
“Send me the audit file,” I said, stopping at the edge of the subway stairs. “Every single document, every financial loophole Luca Bellandi has been using to skim from the neighborhood suppliers. If Dante wants to play corporate games in my neighborhood, I’m going to show him how a real lawyer plays.”
