Chapter 5
The gala itself became relevant.
It was organized by the Lombardi Arts Foundation, a legitimate nonprofit Cesare had helped establish twenty years earlier.
Its mission was simple.
Restoration grants.
Youth theater programs.
Scholarships.
Historic performance spaces.
Julian sat on the board.
Ethan’s company, Metropolitan Interior & Stage, had received several gala and theater-renovation contracts during the previous two years.
Cesare had never questioned that.
Metropolitan was respected.
Then the foundation’s CFO reviewed pricing.
Some contracts were competitive.
Others were not.
Three change orders appeared unusually generous.
One involved acoustic work.
One backstage renovation.
One temporary gala buildout.
Combined overage:
$390,000.
Again.
Not enough to bankrupt anyone.
Enough to matter.
Ethan’s company subcontracted portions of each project.
Two subcontractors belonged to legitimate vendors.
The third was JCL Projects.
Julian again.
Payments to JCL over two years:
$214,000.
Cesare stared at the number.
“So Julian’s sitting on the board approving contracts.”
“Yes,” Lydia said.
“Ethan gets the contracts.”
“Yes.”
“Ethan then pays Julian.”
“Yes.”
“Was it disclosed?”
“No.”
That was no longer merely questionable.
It was a serious conflict.
Julian’s lawyer responded quickly.
JCL had supposedly provided “owner-side liaison services” and “family stakeholder coordination.”
The invoices were vague.
The foundation’s outside directors had never approved related-party compensation.
Cesare requested an independent audit.
One longtime capo objected.
“This is theater money.”
Cesare looked at him.
“It is charity money.”
“Same family.”
“No.”
His voice hardened.
“That sentence is the problem.”
The board froze all new Metropolitan contracts.
Ethan’s attorney threatened litigation.
Good.
Courts produced records.
Cesare no longer feared records as much as he once had.
Then the auditors found something stranger.
The first JCL payment from Ethan had occurred before any foundation contract.
Eleven months earlier.
Amount:
$125,000.
Description:
Bridge repayment — North Stage.
North Stage was Julian’s failed private theater investment.
The same venture that lost $430,000.
Lydia built the timeline.
Julian loses hundreds of thousands.
Weeks later Elsie’s trust funds major “residential” expenses.
Ethan’s company receives those trust-funded contracts.
Money moves from Ethan’s company into Julian’s JCL entity.
Then, months later, Ethan begins receiving favorable foundation work.
This did not look like random bad bookkeeping.
Cesare finally confronted Julian again.
“Did you take Elsie’s money?”
Julian’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Did you receive money from Ethan after his company was paid with trust funds?”
“I performed work.”
“What work?”
Julian looked toward his attorney.
Cesare waited.
Nothing.
“Did Ethan know you were using the trust?”
Julian stood.
His attorney told him to sit.
Julian ignored him.
“You think I stole from my daughter.”
Cesare looked at him.
“I think you have spent seven months pretending she wasn’t your daughter.”
The sentence landed.
Julian sat again.
Cesare continued.
“That makes me less interested in what you think you’re incapable of.”
Julian’s eyes filled.
“I was going to put everything back.”
There it was.
Not a full confession.
Enough.
Lydia stopped the interview immediately.
Julian looked terrified.
May you like
Cesare did not.
For the first time, he was beginning to understand why.
