Chapter 10 - THE COST OF SAVING LUCA
Luca finally asked Jessi for a private conversation.
She refused.
He suggested a restaurant.
She refused again.
Then he asked whether Wendy could sit with them because his mother might help everyone stay calm.
Jessi almost laughed.
The family had spent years using Wendy’s temper when it helped and her maternal authority when it did not.
Now Luca wanted her as a shield.
Maya arranged a meeting in her office with attorneys present.
Luca arrived looking tired and frightened.
For the first time, Jessi saw how much of his confidence had depended on Frank telling him there was always another financial solution.
Luca admitted the construction business faced severe losses. He said he did not tell Jessi because he was ashamed and believed he could rescue it before she noticed.
He described the proposed loan as temporary.
He described the affair as a mistake.
He described Frank’s involvement as an effort to protect the family.
Every answer relied on the same idea: if the plan succeeded, nobody needed to know how it happened.
Maya asked Luca whether he authorized Chloe to use Jessi’s identification.
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
Whether he knew the signatures were unauthorized.
“Yes.”
Whether he told Frank about the affair.
“Yes.”
Then Jessi asked why he left the motel receipt in his jacket.
Luca looked at her.
“Because I couldn’t keep lying.”
She waited.
He added, “I thought if you found out, we could finally talk honestly.”
Maya placed Frank’s email on the table.
Make sure Wendy witnesses the discovery.
Luca stopped speaking.
Jessi asked again.
“Why did you leave the receipt?”
This time he answered.
“Frank said you wouldn’t discuss money while we were still pretending the marriage was normal.”
The financial motive had finally reached Luca’s own mouth.
He expected the affair to force a divorce conversation.
Frank expected the divorce conversation to force a property settlement.
And Jessi’s inheritance would pay for both men’s mistakes.
Luca insisted he never wanted her to lose the house.
Jessi answered, “You wanted me to keep the building and lose what made it mine.”
The distinction mattered.
A house with a $640,000 debt was not the same inheritance Jessi’s mother left her.
It was a financial trap disguised as a generous divorce settlement.
Then Luca revealed a detail even Frank had not disclosed.
The private lender had threatened to report suspected misrepresentations in Luca’s earlier financing applications. If the refinancing failed, the issue might become more than bankruptcy.
Frank believed a quick repayment would keep the lender from examining old documents too closely.
The scheme was therefore about concealment as well as money.
Luca was not merely failing financially.
He feared what a full accounting would show.
And Frank’s guarantees tied him to that fear.
The chapter ended when Maya obtained Luca’s business records.
One supplier invoice carried a signature Jessi recognized.
Frank’s.
Another carried Chloe’s name.
Not as an employee.
As a witness to a transaction dated three months before she began working at Commonwealth.
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The affair may have started after Luca’s business crisis.
But Chloe’s involvement in the financial scheme began before the affair.
