Chapter 10 - The Safe in the Library
Luca looked like a ghost. The crisp executive confidence was entirely gone, replaced by the hollow, desperate exhaustion of a man who had finally realized he had nothing left to bluff with. His hands trembled slightly as he pushed the front door shut behind him, locking it with a soft click.
"How did you get in here?" I asked, my voice steady, though my heart hammered against my ribs. "The security codes were changed at noon."
"I still have my old key," Luca said quietly, his voice raspy and stripped of its usual polish. He didn't look at me with anger anymore; he looked at me the way a drowning man looks at a piece of driftwood he knows he can't reach. "Or at least... I thought I did. The deadbolt wasn't locked from the inside."
"The kids are upstairs," I warned, stepping back toward the hallway leading to the library. "If you're here to argue about the court order, Luca, it's over. The judge signed the restructuring papers two hours ago."
"I'm not here to argue about the company," Luca said, taking a slow step forward, holding up a small, worn leather-bound journal that looked like it had been hidden behind the desk in his downtown office for a decade. "Richard isn't just being questioned by federal investigators, Jessi. When the marshals raided his townhouse this afternoon, they found his personal safe. And inside it... they found this."
I didn't move. "What is it?"
"It's your mother's original journal," Luca whispered, his eyes dark with a realization that seemed to break something inside him. "The one Richard told you was lost in a storage fire twenty years ago when your parents passed away."
The room went completely still. The distant hum of traffic outside on Maplewood Lane seemed to fade away entirely.
"My mother's journal?" I repeated, my voice barely a breath. "Richard said it burned."
"He lied," Luca said, holding the worn leather book out toward me like an offering. "He didn't just help me draft those fake power of attorney agreements, Jessi. He used the exact same legal template he used thirty years ago to take control of your parents' estate before they died. He’s been doing this to your family for two generations."
I stared at the book in his hands, then looked up at his face. For the first time in twelve years, I didn't see the man who had belittled my work, or the husband who had packed my bags on the porch. I saw a man who had hitched his wagon to a monster, only to find out too late that he was just another victim in a much older, deeper deception.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, my fingers resting on the envelope containing Aunt Margaret's letter in my pocket. "Why not bury it with Richard to save yourself?"
Luca gave a bitter, hollow laugh, letting his hand drop to his side. "Because there's nothing left to save. Richard already transferred all the primary liabilities into my personal name before the federal audit hit. I'm legally ruined, Jessi. Chloe blocked my number an hour ago. I have nothing left."
"Except the truth," I said quietly.
"The truth doesn't pay legal fees," Luca replied, turning toward the front door. He paused with his hand on the brass knob, looking back at me one last time through the dim light of the entryway. "Your aunt knew, Jessi. That's why she left you the tower. She knew Richard was coming for the rest of it."
May you like
He pulled the door open and stepped out into the evening mist, leaving the front door slightly ajar.
I stood alone in the hallway for a long moment, listening to the soft sound of Fiona laughing upstairs as she showed Leo her toys. Then I walked down the hall toward my aunt's old library, pulled the brass key from my pocket, and unlocked the heavy wooden door to see what was waiting for me inside.
