Chapter 15 - My business gets dragged into it
Costello Group’s banks learned about the fabricated threats.
Of course.
Some events used company reception.
Company security resources.
My copied signature originated on corporate-adjacent authorization.
Board counsel called emergency meeting.
One independent director, Sarah Finch, said:
“This is what happens when personal household command and corporate authority overlap.”
She was right.
I hated her for it briefly.
Then agreed.
Changes:
Separate residential and corporate security authority.
No partner/spouse/relative automatically authorized to instruct company security.
Dual approval for any covert security test.
No use of family-office money for personal-partner real estate without independent review.
No threat simulation involving minors without counsel and child-safety review.
Then my reputation.
Regulators and banks asked whether organized-crime exposure made Belladonna’s fear reasonable.
I could not say:
There is no risk.
There was.
What I could say:
Real risk does not authorize fake evidence.
Then board asked me to reduce unilateral emergency authority.
That would have enraged younger me.
I accepted.
May you like
Because the same culture that let people fear questioning me let them fear questioning Belladonna when she claimed to speak for me.
Authority without friction had failed Eira.
