Chapter 25 - The Call from Monte Carlo

Caleb answered the phone, tapping the speaker button as Arthur and I stepped beside him on the wide veranda, out of earshot of the children.

The screen lit up with the face of a woman lounging on the sun deck of a multi-million-dollar yacht anchored in the Mediterranean. She was wearing oversized designer sunglasses, a wide-brimmed white hat, and sipping vintage champagne.

It was Chloe.

The very woman who, four months ago, had pulled up to the driveway of Sycamore Lane in a rented minivan, tossed out four crying children, two scuffed suitcases, and an old duffel bag before speeding off to catch a private jet to Europe.

"Hello, Caleb darling," Chloe said, lowering her sunglasses to reveal cold, petulant green eyes. "I see Daddy made a bit of a mess of things on the bluffs. Typical. He was always far too crude for refined business."

Caleb’s jaw clenched so hard the muscles jumped beneath his skin. "Your father is being loaded into a police cruiser, Chloe. And your uncle Julian is in federal custody."

Chloe laughed—a hollow, brittle sound that made my skin crawl. "Oh, let them rot. They served their purpose. While you and Arthur were busy playing war games at the Harbor Basin, do you have any idea what happened on the Frankfurt stock exchange three hours ago?"

Arthur’s eyes narrowed into slits. "The maritime trust."

"Bingo, Uncle Arthur," Chloe purred, swirling her drink. "The Vance Trust has a dormant clause: if the primary beneficiary is ever charged with treason or domestic maritime terrorism—which Julian conveniently was about thirty minutes ago—fifty-one percent of the harbor’s holding company automatically defaults to the oldest female heir. That’s me."

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My fiancé let his friend chop off my mother’s waist-length

My husband spent the night with another woman

My husband brought his mistress to our nine-year-old daughter’s dance

The silence on the porch was deafening. Even the wind blowing off the bluffs seemed to freeze in place.

"I didn't abandon those brats because I hated them, Caleb," Chloe sneered, leaning into the camera. "I left them because the trust explicitly states that to claim the inheritance, I had to be unencumbered by dependent custody disputes in the state of Illinois for ninety consecutive days. Tomorrow morning at nine a.m., day ninety-one begins. I own your house. I own the harbor. And if you want to keep those children in that school, Caleb, you’re going to pay me fifty thousand dollars a month in rent."