Chapter 5 - The Inheritance
My father was found in a motel outside Albany.
Vanessa was gone before Marco’s people arrived.
Dad was unconscious but alive.
He had been drugged.
By morning, he was under police protection at a hospital.
I wanted to see him.
Luca wanted me nowhere near Albany.
For once, I agreed with him.
My mother finished the story instead.
“My mother had an affair before I was born,” she said.
We were sitting in Sofia’s kitchen at sunrise.
“With whom?”
“Jonathan Sinclair.”
The name meant nothing for three seconds.
Then everything connected.
“Sinclair?”
My mother nodded.
“Vanessa’s grandfather?”
“His older brother.”
I stared at her.
“Then Vanessa and I…”
“Are distant relatives.”
The room seemed suddenly too small.
Luca leaned against the counter.
“What inheritance?”
My mother closed her eyes.
“Jonathan controlled a family trust. After a bitter dispute with his brother, he changed the succession terms. The assets would pass through my bloodline if his direct descendants failed certain conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“Criminal fraud.”
Daniel looked up from his laptop.
“Vanessa’s father was convicted of securities fraud twelve years ago.”
My mother nodded.
“And her uncle three years later.”
Daniel began typing.
Then froze.
“I found it.”
He turned the laptop.
The Sinclair Heritage Trust.
Current estimated value:
$186 million.
I laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“I don’t want $186 million.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Daniel said. “Legally, it may already be yours.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“And if Isabella dies?”
Nobody answered.
Daniel searched deeper.
Then his face changed.
“The trust passes to her biological issue.”
Everyone looked at my stomach.
I stood.
“No.”
Luca moved immediately.
“What?”
“This wasn’t about breaking up my marriage.”
He understood.
“Vanessa needed access to you.”
“And when she learned I was pregnant…”
“She needed access to the child.”
My knees weakened.
Luca caught me.
This time I didn’t push him away.
His arms stayed around me.
Safe.
Familiar.
Dangerous in an entirely different way.
“I won’t let anyone touch either of you,” he said.
I believed him.
That frightened me too.
Because believing Luca again meant reopening the part of myself I had spent seven months burying.
Later that afternoon, Adrian arrived with the recovered financial records.
He and Luca stared at each other like two men being asked to share a lifeboat.
Adrian finally extended his hand.
“For what it’s worth, I never slept with your wife.”
Luca shook it.
“I know.”
“And I’m married.”
Luca blinked.
“To a man.”
“I gathered that recently.”
Adrian smiled.
“I always wondered why you glared at me.”
“I glare at everyone.”
“You especially glared at me.”
I almost laughed.
For the first time in months, something felt normal.
Then Adrian showed us another document.
“Vanessa petitioned the trust court six months ago.”
My smile disappeared.
“On what grounds?”
“That the Bennett branch had no living descendants.”
“But I was alive.”
“She claimed you couldn’t be located.”
Luca swore quietly.
Adrian continued.
“The petition was denied because the trustee demanded proof.”
“What proof?”
“Proof you were dead.”
Silence.
A chill ran through me.
Vanessa had not merely wanted my husband.
She had needed me erased.
That night I couldn’t sleep.
I found Luca on the back terrace.
Snow had begun falling.
“You’ll freeze.”
“So will you.”
He took off his coat and placed it around my shoulders.
Old habit.
We stood quietly.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For believing photographs instead of asking my wife.”
I looked at him.
“You did ask.”
“No. I accused.”
He was right.
“I was jealous. Proud. Angry. I let someone manipulate every weakness I had.”
“I hid things too.”
“That doesn’t excuse me.”
“No.”
He looked toward the dark garden.
“I loved you every day you were gone.”
My throat tightened.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not asking you to come back.”
“Then why say it?”
“Because apparently silence has cost us enough.”
I looked away.
His hand rested beside mine on the railing.
Not touching.
Close.
Then the baby moved.
Hard.
I gasped.
Luca immediately turned.
“What happened?”
“She kicked.”
His eyes dropped.
I hesitated.
Then took his hand.
I placed it against my belly.
Our daughter kicked again.
Luca stopped breathing.
His eyes filled.
I had seen Luca furious.
Cold.
Victorious.
I had never seen him cry.
Until then.
“Hi,” he whispered.
My heart broke open.
Then every light in the house went out.
A second later, an alarm screamed.
May you like
Marco shouted from downstairs.
And through the darkness came the unmistakable smell of smoke.
