Chapter 7 - The Night Jake Came Back
"Luca?"
He looked at Thomas.
"You're lying."
Thomas shrugged.
"Then tell her."
Ava stepped closer.
"Tell me what?"
Luca's voice was quiet.
"My father hired someone to inspect your mother's car."
"Before or after the crash?"
"Before."
Ava's stomach dropped.
"Why?"
"He believed someone had tampered with it."
Thomas laughed softly.
"Convenient."
Luca ignored him.
"My father received a warning. He sent a mechanic to Elaine's office parking garage."
"And?"
"The mechanic found nothing."
Thomas smiled.
"Because he wasn't sent to find anything."
Luca lunged.
Dante caught him.
"Don't."
Ava had never seen Luca lose control.
That frightened her more than Thomas's smile.
Thomas picked up the folder.
"Twenty million, Ava."
"No."
"Think about Emma."
"I am."
"You could give her everything."
"She already has everything she needs from me."
"Does she?"
Thomas glanced at Ava's brace.
"You're working injured for prescription money."
The shame hit exactly where he intended.
Then something changed.
Ava realized she wasn't ashamed.
She had worked because her daughter needed her.
Thomas had spent years stealing because he wanted more.
She looked at him.
"I'd rather serve coffee for the rest of my life than teach my daughter that men like you get whatever they want."
Thomas's smile disappeared.
There.
For the first time, Ava saw him.
Not powerful.
Not untouchable.
Just angry.
Jake stepped beside her.
"I'll testify."
Thomas looked at him.
"You?"
"Everything."
"You forged documents."
"I know."
"You committed fraud."
"I know."
"You'll go to prison."
Jake looked at Ava.
"Maybe I should."
Ava said nothing.
Forgiveness wasn't the same as erasing consequences.
Thomas's expression hardened.
"You think this ends because you've become brave?"
"No," Jake said. "It ends because I recorded you."
Silence.
Jake tapped his shirt button.
A tiny recorder.
Thomas stared.
Dante smiled faintly.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Thomas turned toward Marco.
"You."
Marco raised his phone.
"I called them."
For one second nobody moved.
Then Thomas ran.
Dante went after him.
Luca shouted for Ava to stay back.
Thomas disappeared through the kitchen.
Police entered through the front.
Chaos erupted.
Ava remained beside Jake.
He looked at her.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
"I don't expect you to forgive me."
"Good."
He nodded.
"Can I see Emma?"
Ava looked at him for a long time.
"Not tonight."
Pain crossed his face.
But he nodded.
"Okay."
That mattered.
For once, Jake accepted a boundary instead of deciding what was best for everyone else.
Police caught Thomas two blocks away.
By sunrise, the investigation had exploded far beyond Ava.
Financial crimes.
Forged documents.
Fraud.
Blackmail.
The manipulation of the Carter trust.
And the unanswered question surrounding Elaine's death.
Thomas denied everything.
Jake turned over records.
Marco cooperated.
Margaret provided decades of files.
Luca opened his family's corporate archives voluntarily.
Ava hired her own attorney.
Her name was Rachel Kim.
She was forty-one, brutally organized, and unimpressed by Luca.
Ava liked her immediately.
"The first thing we're doing," Rachel said, "is making sure nobody can touch your assets without your explicit authorization."
"Even Luca?"
"Especially Luca."
Luca, sitting across the room, nodded.
"Agreed."
Rachel looked almost disappointed that he hadn't argued.
Over the following week, Ava learned the truth in pieces.
Jake had taken the eighty thousand.
But he hadn't spent it.
Seventy-two thousand remained in an account he turned over to investigators.
He had used the rest to survive while collecting evidence against Thomas.
That didn't absolve him.
But it changed the story.
Marco had participated in fraud.
He would face consequences too.
Margaret had monitored Ava without permission, believing she was honoring Elaine's wishes.
Ava told her that protection without consent was still control.
Margaret accepted it.
And Luca?
Luca became harder to define.
He never asked Ava to trust him.
He simply kept showing up.
He drove Emma and Ava to medical appointments.
He sat outside meetings unless invited in.
When Emma asked why he always wore black, he said it saved time.
Emma told him that was boring.
The next morning he arrived wearing a dark blue tie.
Ava laughed for the first time in weeks.
Luca looked at her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're laughing."
"Emma won."
"Apparently."
Something warm passed between them.
Ava immediately looked away.
Too soon.
Far too soon.
Then Rachel called.
"We found something."
They met at her office.
A mechanic had been located.
The man who inspected Elaine's car.
He was alive.
And willing to testify.
"He found the brake line damaged," Rachel said.
Ava frowned.
"Luca said he found nothing."
"That's what he reported."
"Why?"
"Someone paid him."
"Thomas?"
Rachel slid a bank transfer across the desk.
The account belonged to a Castellano company.
Ava looked at Luca.
His face drained.
"I've never seen this."
Rachel nodded.
"We believe you."
"Why?"
"Because the authorization predates your control of the company."
Luca looked at the signature.
His father's.
Ava felt something break inside her.
"Your father paid him to lie."
Luca stared at the document.
"I don't know."
"His signature is there."
"It could be forged."
"Like mine was?"
He looked at her.
That landed.
"I'm sorry."
Ava stood.
"I need air."
She left the office.
Luca didn't follow.
She appreciated that.
Outside, Seattle traffic moved around her.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Then answered.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice whispered.
"Ava Carter?"
"Yes."
"My name is Elena Ruiz."
Ava frowned.
"I don't know you."
"No. But I knew your mother."
Ava went still.
"How?"
"I was there the night she died."
Ava gripped the phone.
"What?"
"Your mother wasn't alone in the car."
The street seemed to tilt.
"Who was with her?"
The woman began to cry.
"Ava, you need to understand. Everyone has been investigating the wrong person."
"Who was in the car?"
A long silence.
Then Elena whispered a name.
Ava turned toward the office window.
Luca stood behind the glass.
The phone nearly slipped from her hand.
May you like
Because Elena had said:
"Luca Castellano."
