Chapter 5: The Meeting Scheduled Before the Betrayal
The second meaningful clue came from the board secretary.
Her name was Ellen Price.
She had worked for Montaro Holdings for seventeen years and had never missed a meeting.
Katherine interviewed her with outside counsel present.
Ellen brought her calendar.
Saturday—the banquet day—contained an unusual private entry scheduled for 7:15 p.m.
Continuity discussion — directors only.
The banquet confrontation happened shortly after six.
Rafael looked at Ellen.
“Who created this?”
“Lucille’s assistant.”
“When?”
“Thursday.”
Two days before the banquet.
“What was the subject supposed to be?”
“I asked.”
“And?”
“I was told Lucille would explain if the discussion became necessary.”
Katherine asked, “Was Rafael invited?”
Ellen shook her head.
Rafael’s eyes hardened.
Every other voting director was.
The meeting never occurred because Rafael ended the banquet and sent everyone home.
Lucille later repurposed the same time slot into emergency calls arguing Rafael had voluntarily stepped away.
Rafael stood and walked to the window.
Katherine remained seated.
“This is a clue.”
“I know.”
“Not proof.”
“I know.”
“Say it again.”
He looked back at her.
“Not proof.”
“Good.”
The family politics worsened anyway.
Celina circulated a private message claiming Rafael had become unstable since Emmett’s mother died eighteen months earlier.
That angered him more than attacks on his business judgment.
Emmett’s mother, Natalie, had died after a long illness.
Rafael had raised their son with help from staff and a small circle of relatives.
Lucille had once been part of that circle.
She held Emmett at Natalie’s funeral.
She sat beside his crib when Rafael spent nights at the hospital.
That history made the banquet harder to understand.
Rafael could understand money.
He could understand power.
He struggled to understand how a woman who once rocked his son to sleep could kick something from his hands for strategic advantage.
Katherine reminded him:
“You don’t know yet that it was strategic.”
Rafael nodded.
He hated that too.
He ordered no contact with Lucille outside attorneys and board procedures until the meeting.
Celina received the same restriction.
For the first time in decades, two powerful Montaro women could not simply walk into Rafael’s home because blood granted access.
Lucille responded by telling several relatives Rafael was isolating himself.
Rafael documented that too.
He was beginning to understand something.
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Lucille did not need everyone to believe he was evil.
She only needed enough people to believe he was becoming unpredictable.
