Chapter 3 - The Contract With a Missing Page
“Who I really am?”
Chloe's voice barely carried across the room.
Leo folded the page.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Leo.”
“Not until we know whether it's genuine.”
“You recognized the handwriting.”
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves you recognized it.”
Chloe reached for the page.
Leo moved it away.
Her expression changed.
Not fear.
Betrayal.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
“Don't become him.”
“Who?”
“Bradley.”
The name landed harder than she intended.
“He spent three years deciding what information I could handle. What friends were good for me. What food was good for me. What choices were good for me.”
Leo slowly lowered his hand.
“If this concerns me, I read it.”
He gave her the page.
Section Twelve contained language Chloe did not understand at first.
Then she did.
In the event of successful conception, all financial obligations owed by Daniel Bennett would be extinguished immediately.
That part she knew.
The next paragraph was different.
A trust would activate.
Not for Leo.
Not for the child.
For Chloe.
The amount was enormous.
Twenty-five million dollars.
“What is this?”
Leo looked equally stunned.
“I don't know.”
“My pregnancy activates twenty-five million dollars?”
“Apparently.”
“From whom?”
Marco leaned over.
“The trust designation is AB-1998.”
Chloe frowned.
“AB.”
Leo understood first.
“Amelia Bennett.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Her mother.
Amelia had died when Chloe was nine.
At least that was what Chloe had been told.
The room suddenly felt too small.
“Find everything,” Leo told Marco.
Marco was already moving.
Chloe sat.
For once Leo did not tell her to.
He simply sat beside her.
Not touching.
Close enough that she could choose.
After several seconds, Chloe put her hand in his.
Leo closed his fingers around hers.
Marco returned twenty minutes later.
His face was grim.
“AB-1998 exists.”
“Beneficiary?” Leo asked.
“Chloe Bennett.”
“Settlor?”
“Sealed.”
“Who controls it?”
Marco hesitated.
“Hayes Capital.”
Chloe's hand went cold inside Leo's.
Bradley's family company.
“No.”
Marco turned the screen.
There it was.
Hayes Capital Fiduciary Services.
Bradley had known.
Maybe not everything.
But something.
Chloe remembered his comments.
Lost your apartment.
Things haven't been going well.
He had not encountered her accidentally.
He had been checking.
“Why would Bradley's family control money belonging to my mother?”
No one answered.
Then Leo's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered on speaker.
A man's voice spoke.
“Moretti.”
Leo recognized Victor Salerno.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing that belongs to you.”
Chloe's fingers tightened.
“Danny,” she said.
A pause.
Then Victor laughed softly.
“So she is listening.”
“If you've hurt him—”
“Your brother hurt himself years ago, Miss Bennett. I merely offered him somewhere safe to reconsider his loyalties.”
“What do you want?”
“The original contract.”
“Why?”
“Ask Bradley.”
The call ended.
Marco immediately began tracing it.
Chloe stood.
“I'm going to Bradley.”
“No.”
“Leo—”
“No.”
“He knows about my mother.”
“And he's meeting Salerno.”
“Then I'll make him talk.”
Leo stared at her.
“You think because Hayes insulted your weight in a bakery you understand what he's involved in?”
“I understand him better than you do.”
“That's precisely what concerns me.”
Chloe grabbed her purse.
Leo blocked the doorway.
She looked up.
“Move.”
“No.”
“I'm not your employee.”
“I know.”
“I'm not your wife.”
Something flickered across his expression.
“I know.”
“And according to the agreement, I'm not even supposed to remain part of your life after the baby is born.”
That one hurt him.
She saw it.
Good, she thought.
Then hated herself.
Leo stepped aside.
“Fine.”
Chloe blinked.
“Fine?”
“You want to see Bradley, we'll see Bradley.”
“We?”
“Yes.”
“I can do this myself.”
“I have absolutely no doubt.”
He put on his coat.
“You're still not doing it alone.”
An hour later, Bradley Hayes was sitting inside his glass office above Park Avenue when Chloe walked through the doors.
He stood immediately.
Then saw Leo.
His confidence fractured.
“Chloe.”
“Tell me about AB-1998.”
Bradley became pale.
That was answer enough.
Leo closed the office door.
Bradley looked at him.
“Is this a threat?”
“No,” Leo said. “If it were, you wouldn't need to ask.”
Chloe stepped forward.
“My mother's trust.”
Bradley swallowed.
“My father handled it.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“Lie again,” Leo said quietly, “and we're finished being polite.”
Bradley looked at Chloe.
“You were never supposed to find out.”
“Find out what?”
“That Amelia Bennett didn't create the trust.”
“Then who did?”
Bradley looked toward Leo.
“His father.”
Silence.
Chloe turned slowly.
Leo appeared genuinely shocked.
Bradley continued.
“Antonio Moretti funded it in 1998.”
The year Chloe was born.
“Why?” she whispered.
Bradley opened his desk.
Leo tensed.
Bradley removed a photograph.
He placed it face down.
“My father told me never to show you this unless the trust activated.”
“Pregnancy activated it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Chloe reached for the photograph.
Bradley stopped her.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“The trust doesn't activate because you're pregnant.”
Chloe stared at him.
“It activates because of who the father is.”
Leo stepped closer.
Bradley finally released the photograph.
Chloe turned it over.
A young Antonio Moretti stood outside a hospital.
Beside him was Chloe's mother, Amelia.
She held a newborn baby.
Chloe.
But Antonio's hand was not around Amelia.
It rested protectively over the infant.
On the back, four words had been written.
FOR MY DAUGHTER, CHLOE.
Leo read them.
Then looked at Chloe.
May you like
Before either could speak, Bradley's office door unlocked from the outside.
Someone began opening it.
