Chapter 2 - THE GIRL WENDY DIDN’T SEE
Jessi refused to answer Wendy’s questions until they reached the car.
Rain tapped against the windshield while Wendy sat gripping her handbag, staring at Jessi as though she had brought her all the way to the motel only to abandon the confrontation at the most important moment.
“Who was she?”
Jessi started the engine.
“Chloe.”
Wendy’s expression did not change immediately. Her mind appeared to reject the answer before understanding it.
“Chloe who?”
“Your brother Frank’s daughter.”
Wendy turned toward the motel.
Jessi caught her sleeve before she could open the door.
“Don’t.”
“That filthy little—”
“Wendy. Listen to me.”
Wendy went still because Jessi almost never used that tone with her.
“Luca knew we might come. I need to know why before Frank finds out what happened.”
Wendy stared at her.
“What does Frank have to do with my son being a disgusting liar?”
“I don’t know yet.”
That was not entirely true.
Jessi knew Frank had been Luca’s closest financial adviser for the previous year. She knew Chloe recently started working for a title-services company. And she knew Luca had been pressuring her to refinance the house Jessi inherited from her mother.
Those facts might be unrelated.
She wanted to find out before Wendy delivered the news to every relative in New York.
On the drive home, Wendy called Luca repeatedly. He finally answered after eleven attempts.
“Mom, let me explain.”
Wendy nearly shouted herself hoarse.
Jessi reached across and ended the call.
“He’s not explaining anything tonight.”
Wendy looked wounded. “He’s my son.”
“And Chloe is Frank’s daughter. What happens when you tell him?”
Wendy opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Frank had never been a gentle man. He loved Chloe, but he regarded her adoption as proof of his generosity and reminded her of it whenever she disappointed him. If he learned she had been sleeping with Luca, he would make certain everyone else learned too.
Jessi did not intend to protect Chloe from consequences.
She intended to stop Frank from controlling which consequences came first.
Back at the house, Jessi changed the front-door code and put Luca’s remaining clothes into the guest room. Wendy sat at the kitchen table, still too angry to leave.
Then Jessi checked the motel receipt again.
Something was wrong with the time.
The paper was not merely a receipt for the afternoon Luca claimed to be meeting a supplier. It had been issued the previous day. The stay began at 12:36 and ended at 2:21, but the printed transaction date placed it on Friday.
Luca wore the jacket Saturday morning.
Jessi remembered seeing him take it from the closet before leaving for what he called an emergency site visit.
She also remembered him placing it on the laundry-room chair afterward.
Luca usually emptied his pockets obsessively. He even checked them before handing jackets to the dry cleaner.
He had left the receipt in the one place Jessi was guaranteed to find it.
Wendy watched her expression.
“What?”
Jessi showed her the date.
“Luca didn’t accidentally forget this.”
“You think he wanted to get caught?”
“I think he wanted me to find something.”
That possibility became more disturbing when Chloe sent her a message.
I’m sorry. Please don’t tell Frank yet.
Jessi stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
There are things Luca told me about your house. I thought you knew.
Jessi read that sentence three times.
She had inherited the house from her mother six years earlier, before marrying Luca. It was the one financial boundary she never allowed her husband or his family to cross.
“What things?” she typed.
Chloe did not answer.
Five minutes later, Jessi received an automated email from Commonwealth Title Services.
May you like
A document package associated with her property was ready for final review.
She had never requested one.
