I called Arthur directly. “Arthur? Is Luca with you?”
“No, sweetheart,” Arthur replied softly over the line. “I haven’t seen him in days.”
That evening, I drove out to Arthur’s estate.
When I sat down beside his chair and laid out what I had discovered, the old man sat in absolute silence for almost a full minute.
Then he asked, “Did my son mention my estate trust?”
“Yes.”
Arthur closed his eyes heavily. “A week ago, he asked me if I had updated my final will. He wanted to know the valuation of the property and how the controlling shares of the company were allocated.”
I gently reached out and took his hand. “Please don’t make any sudden decisions while you’re angry, Arthur. If Luca no longer loves me, that’s a tragedy for our marriage. I don’t want you altering your legacy on my account.”
Arthur tapped his fingers against the mahogany table.
“I’m not altering anything because he cheated on you, Jessi,” Arthur said, his eyes opening with a cold, fierce clarity. “I’m altering it because while I am still breathing, my son is already dividing up my corpse.”
Two days later, Arthur met with his oncologist to obtain a certified evaluation of his mental competence. Immediately following that appointment, accompanied solely by his corporate attorney, Rachel Vance, he met with a notary.
I had no idea what he had executed until that evening.
Arthur set a thick, sealed envelope on the table in front of me.
“It’s done.”
“What did you do, Arthur?”
“The controlling voting shares of Vance Global will pass directly to you,” he said flatly. “The remaining equity will be held in a restricted trust for Kelly and Leo. The primary estate and my personal savings will be protected for the three of you as well.”
I went completely still. “No, Arthur… leave it all to the children.”
“They are minors,” Arthur replied firmly. “Someone with real integrity needs to protect what belongs to them. Luca is going to claim you manipulated me.”
Arthur looked me straight in the eyes. “Then he will have to prove in a court of law why a dying man had no right to decide what to do with the empire he spent forty years building.”
I thought the hardest part of the ordeal was behind us.
I had no idea that three nights later, Luca would return home from his mistress’s house, find his packed suitcases waiting by the front door, and utter a sentence in front of his own father that would seal his absolute ruin.
PART 2
Luca returned home at four-thirty in the morning.
I had set his packed suitcases in the foyer and asked Arthur to be present. I had no intention of arguing over a voice recording or allowing Luca to spin false narratives later.
Luca walked through the front door smelling of expensive bourbon and a perfume that wasn’t mine.
He saw the luggage.
Then he saw me standing by the archway.
To my complete astonishment, a confident, arrogant smirk spread across his face.
“So you finally figured out about Chloe,” he said, not making a single attempt to deny it. He tossed his keys onto the console table. “Honestly, you saved us a very uncomfortable conversation. I found someone who actually makes me happy.”
“Then take your bags and leave,” I said smoothly.