Chapter 5: What Wendy Had Signed
My attorney's name was Claire Odom.
She had represented me for six years, since before the company had been worth anything.
She was sixty-one years old, five feet two, and she had never once raised her voice in a meeting.
She didn't need to.
She called me at seven-fifteen the next morning.
Luca was in the shower.
I stepped onto the balcony and closed the glass door behind me.
"Tell me you got Phoebe's message," I said.
"I got it at eleven-thirty last night," Claire said.
"I've already spoken to a forensic documents specialist.
The signature on the trust transfer filing is not yours."
The city was pale and quiet below me.
"How certain?"
"Certain enough to file an emergency injunction this morning to halt the transfer.
The filing is frozen as of forty minutes ago."
I pressed my back against the glass door.
"Who signed it?"
"The specialist needs the original document to confirm.
But Jessi — the notary stamp on the filing is registered to a firm called Aldwell and Associates." A pause.
"That firm has one active client in this county."
I already knew the answer.
"Wendy."
"Wendy Carver has used Aldwell for estate work for nine years.
The notary who stamped your signature is an employee of that firm."
I heard the shower turn off inside the suite.
"Claire," I said quietly.
"How much time do we have before Luca knows the transfer is frozen?"
"His attorney will likely be notified when the court opens.
Two hours.
Maybe three."
"What do I do until then?"
"You act like nothing has happened," Claire said.
"Can you do that?"
I thought about the ballroom.
The frosting.
The two hundred people who had watched and said nothing.
The smile I had held for four hours.
"Yes," I said.
"Good.
One more thing." Claire's voice dropped slightly.
"The trust document listed a secondary beneficiary for the share transfer.
Not Luca."
I turned.
"Who?"
"A holding company called Carver-Venn LLC.
Registered eighteen months ago." She paused.
"Two months before Luca first asked you to dinner."
The balcony door slid open behind me.
Luca stood in the doorway in a hotel robe, hair damp, holding two cups of coffee.
He looked at my phone, then at my face.
"Who are you talking to?" he said.
I lowered the phone.
"My mother."
He handed me a cup.
His eyes stayed on me a beat too long.
"Tell her we'll call later," he said.
"Together."
I lifted the phone back to my ear.
"I'll call you back," I said.
"Of course," Claire said.
"Be careful."
I ended the call.
Took the coffee.
Stood beside my husband of fourteen hours and looked out at the city while everything I had just learned settled into place like stones dropping through water.
Carver-Venn LLC.
Registered eighteen months ago.
Two months before the first date.
This had never been about love.
It had never even been about control.
May you like
It had been a business plan.
And Wendy had drawn it up.
