Kylian Lucas found the first real break in Adrian's finances on a Thursday afternoon, and he brought it to my office in person rather than trusting it to an email, the same instinct that had guided him through every sensitive discovery so far. "Adrian's been moving money without Vanessa's knowledge," Lucas said, spreading a set of transaction records across my desk. "Separate accounts, opened in the last eight months, funded partially through the merger negotiations he's been running with DeLuca Maison." "He's skimming from his own company." "Worse. He's skimming from the merger itself. Isabella's negotiations have him believing the deal is more lucrative than it actually is, and he's been quietly diverting a percentage of the projected proceeds into private accounts before the ink is

