Chapter 4 - The Storage Key
The storage facility stood forty minutes from the lake.
Chloe had the key.
Evelyn had already contacted counsel and arranged for everything to be documented before we entered. I wasn’t interested in revenge. I wanted evidence obtained correctly.
Inside unit 417 were twelve banker’s boxes.
Invoices.
Contracts.
Corporate seals.
Old laptops.
And one locked metal case.
The paperwork told a story Luca had carefully hidden from me.
For nearly two years, money had been moved through consulting contracts that appeared legitimate from the outside. Some invoices described strategic services. Others listed development research, acquisition consulting, and vendor coordination.
But several companies shared addresses.
Some shared accountants.
One shared Chloe’s name.
Then I found something worse.
A signed authorization bearing my signature.
Except I had never signed it.
I stared at the page.
Evelyn stared too.
“That isn’t yours?”
“No.”
Chloe covered her mouth.
The authorization purported to approve a multimillion-dollar transaction.
My name was printed beneath a signature that looked almost perfect.
Almost.
Luca had spent fourteen years watching me sign documents.
He knew how I crossed the J.
He knew the angle of the V.
But whoever copied it had missed one tiny habit.
I never closed the loop in my surname.
This signature did.
Evelyn photographed it.
“Jessica, from this moment forward, assume this is bigger than marital misconduct.”
I already did.
The locked case remained.
Chloe stared at it.
“I know where the other key is.”
“Where?”
She looked embarrassed.
“The penthouse.”
By noon, the board meeting was only twenty-one hours away.
And Luca finally started calling me.
Seventeen calls in forty minutes.
I answered the eighteenth.
“What?” I said.
His breathing was uneven.
“Whatever you think you found, you don’t understand it.”
“Then explain.”
Silence.
“Come home.”
“I am home.”
Another silence.
That one hurt him.
“Jessi, we can fix this.”
“You gave me twenty minutes.”
“I was angry.”
“You arrived with prepared documents.”
“Chloe pushed me.”
Across the room, Chloe heard him.
Her face hardened.
I put the phone on speaker.
Luca continued.
“She wanted the house. She wanted everything.”
Chloe stepped closer.
“You told me Jessica had already agreed.”
Luca stopped breathing.
“Chloe?”
“Yes.”
Then she said the words that destroyed whatever loyalty she had left.
“I found the storage unit.”
The line went dead.
Ten minutes later, Evelyn’s phone rang.
It was security at the villa.
Someone had tried to access Jessica’s private office.
The security camera had captured his face.
May you like
It was Luca.
And he hadn’t come alone.
