Luca read the headline, his face going pale. “You’re firing me?!”
“Your executive authority as CEO is terminated effective immediately, pursuant to corporate governance protocols,” Rachel explained calmly.
Luca glared at me, his eyes burning with hatred. “You finally did it, didn’t you? First my wife. Then my inheritance. Now my job.”
“You lost your marriage the day you chose to lie to us, Luca,” I said flatly. “Your inheritance was never your property. And this executive desk was never a family entitlement.”
“This is pure, bitter revenge!” he shouted.
I pushed a thick black binder toward him. “Here are the delayed contracts, the HR grievances, the unvetted vendor transfers, and the lost client accounts. If you wish to challenge the board’s decision, we can debate your operational performance line by line.”
He didn’t open the binder. “Who is taking over as CEO?”
“Our Chief Operating Officer will serve as interim CEO,” I replied.
Luca let out a bitter, hollow laugh. “You don’t even have the courage to sit in my chair?”
“I don’t need your chair to prove my worth to anyone, Luca.”
He grabbed his coat and walked out. He attempted to challenge his termination in corporate court, but the case was dismissed within thirty days due to overwhelming documentation of executive negligence.
Then came the final execution of the eviction order for the estate.
On the appointed morning, I arrived with my attorney, the county sheriff’s deputies, and a locksmith.
Luca opened the front door wearing sweatpants and an unbuttoned shirt. When he saw the sheriff’s deputies holding the execution warrant, he looked directly at me.
“Did you come here to enjoy the show, Jessi?”
“I came to secure the property,” I said calmly.
“My father’s house.”
“The house your father left to his grandchildren’s trust.”
He glared at me, but the deputies politely instructed him that he had two hours to collect his personal clothing and belongings.
Luca packed three suitcases and a duffel bag. As he walked through Arthur’s old private study, his eyes landed on a framed photograph hanging on the wall. It was an old black-and-white picture of Arthur standing in front of his very first commercial warehouse forty years ago.
Luca took the frame down from the wall. He looked at me. “I’m taking this.”
“Take it,” I said softly.
He looked surprised. “You’re not going to claim it belongs to the estate?”
“It’s a picture of your father, Luca. I would never keep that from you.”
Luca lowered his eyes, staring at the old photograph. For a brief second, the arrogant, entitled monster vanished, replaced by the man I had married sixteen years ago.
“He really intended to leave me everything,” Luca whispered, his voice trembling.
“He did,” I said.
“Until you showed up.”
I shook my head gently. “Until a version of you showed up that your father no longer recognized.”