Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE MY HUSBAND STOLE
I wanted to go back immediately.
Luka refused.
“You gave birth today.”
“He has something that belonged to my father.”
“And Ethan would love nothing more than for you to walk into that apartment angry and exhausted.”
I hated that he was right.
So Luka called someone named Amelia Rhodes.
She arrived forty minutes later.
Gray suit.
No nonsense.
Sharp eyes.
She introduced herself as the attorney for the Bennett Legacy Trust.
I stared at her.
“You existed this entire time?”
“Unfortunately, Mrs. Cole, I was legally restricted from contacting you until the trust activated.”
“Call me Mara.”
She nodded.
“Mara, your father was extremely specific.”
She opened a leather case.
Inside were documents bearing Daniel Bennett’s signature.
The house.
An investment account.
Several sealed corporate certificates.
Then Amelia placed one final sheet on the table.
I stopped breathing.
MORETTI HOLDINGS.
Beneficial ownership: 18.4 percent.
I looked at Luka.
“What is this?”
“Your inheritance.”
“That company is worth billions.”
“Yes.”
I laughed once.
It came out like a sob.
“No.”
Amelia remained calm.
“Your father held these shares in trust for you.”
“How did he own them?”
“He didn’t.”
Luka answered.
“They belonged to someone else.”
“Who?”
He looked at the photograph of my father.
“Mine.”
The room became silent.
“Your father gave my father eighteen percent of his company?”
“No.”
Luka’s voice dropped.
“My father put the shares in Daniel’s care.”
“Why?”
“Because someone inside the Moretti family was stealing from us.”
I looked at him.
“And my father helped him?”
“He exposed it.”
“Who was stealing?”
Luka did not answer immediately.
Amelia did.
“Richard Cole.”
My blood ran cold.
“My father-in-law?”
“Before building Cole Strategic, Richard served as chief financial officer of Moretti Holdings.”
I had never known that.
Luka walked to the window.
“He diverted millions through shell companies.”
“My father discovered it?”
“Yes.”
“Then why wasn’t Richard arrested?”
“Because evidence vanished.”
Luka turned.
“And three months later, Daniel Bennett was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer no specialist had seen six months earlier.”
My breath caught.
“You think Richard hurt my father?”
“I think your father believed he was in danger.”
Amelia slid another paper toward me.
It was a handwritten letter.
Mara,
If you are reading this, then your child has been born and the protection I built around you has expired.
Do not trust anyone who tells you the Moretti name is your enemy.
Especially not Richard Cole.
My vision blurred.
Below that was one more sentence.
M-17 contains the truth about your mother.
I looked at Luka.
“My mother?”
He nodded.
“What does she have to do with any of this?”
Before he could answer, headlights swept across the front windows.
Three black vehicles entered the driveway.
Luka’s face changed instantly.
Amelia closed the case.
“Were you expecting anyone?”
“No.”
Luka pulled back the curtain.
Richard Cole stepped from the first car.
And beside him was Ethan.
My husband looked toward the house he had told me no longer existed.
May you like
Then he saw me through the window.
For the first time that day, Ethan Cole looked frightened.
