Chapter 2 - The Ambush at the Office
At 7:30 the next morning, I dressed in a tailored navy blazer and dark trousers, my hair pulled back into a tight, professional bun. Fiona was safely eating pancakes with Rachel, who had taken the day off from her job as a pediatric nurse to watch her.
"Are you sure you want to go to work today?" Rachel asked, handing me a travel mug of black coffee. "Luca knows where your office is. He’s going to come looking for you."
"I know," I said, checking my phone. The freeze on our joint checking and savings accounts had already gone through at 7:00 AM sharp. "That's exactly why I need to be there."
When I walked into the glass doors of Apex Financial Compliance, the atmosphere was calm and cold. My assistant, Mia, looked up from the reception desk with wide eyes.
"Jessi," Mia whispered, sliding a piece of paper across her desk. "Your husband has been calling the front desk since 7:15. He said it was a family emergency and demanded to speak with HR to get your salary deposited into a new account."
"Did HR speak with him?" I asked quietly.
"No, Mr. Vance in Legal blocked it," Mia said, referring to my senior partner (who was no relation to Luca’s family). "He told Luca that without a court order, no changes could be made."
At 9:00 AM, the glass elevators at the end of the hall dinged.
I stepped out of my corner office just in time to see Luca storming past the security desk. He looked atrocious. He was wearing the same pants from the night before, a wrinkled button-down shirt, and an old pair of backup glasses with thick, round frames that made his eyes look bugged out and panicked.
Behind him was Wendy.
Even with her face scrubbed clean of red velvet cake, Wendy managed to look terrifying. She was wearing a beige tweed suit, heavy gold jewelry, and dark sunglasses to hide whatever bruising my shove had left on her cheekbone.
"Jessi!" Luca yelled, waving his phone in the air as two security guards moved to intercept him. "Have you lost your mind? My card was declined at the gas station! My credit lines are frozen! What did you do to our accounts?"
The entire floor went silent. Executives and paralegals peeked out from their cubicles.
I stood my ground, resting my hands comfortably in the pockets of my tailored blazer. "You're trespassing, Luca. And your mother is violating a temporary restraining order that my attorney filed three hours ago."
Wendy stepped around her son, her voice screeching like rusted metal against concrete. "Restraining order? For what? For giving that little brat a long-overdue lesson in manners? You assaulted me, you psychopath! You pushed an elderly woman in front of fifty guests!"
"Elderly?" I raised an eyebrow, keeping my tone perfectly smooth and modulated. "You spent two hours last night bragging that sixty was the new thirty, Wendy."
"You ruined my family!" Wendy hissed, taking a step toward me, her fake nails curling into fists. "You brought your white-trash upbringing into my son’s life, and now you’re trying to steal his money!"
"Your son doesn't have any money, Wendy," I said, looking directly at Luca, whose face was turning a mottled, unhealthy shade of purple. "Luca hasn't earned a real paycheck in three years. Everything in those accounts came from my salary at Apex and the investments I managed for him."
"That money is joint property!" Luca shouted, his voice cracking. "We are married! You can't just lock me out!"
"I can when a judge signs an emergency protective order based on felony child abuse and spousal neglect," I said.
I pulled a crisp white envelope from my blazer and handed it to the head security officer standing beside Luca.
"This is a legal notice of trespass and a copy of the emergency injunction," I told the officer. "If either of these individuals remains on company property in thirty seconds, please have the police escort them out in handcuffs."
Luca stared at the white envelope, then at me. For the first time, he saw no fear in my eyes—only the cold, calculating precision of an officer who handled corporate takedowns for a living.
"Jessi... please," Luca stammered, stepping closer as his voice dropped into the manipulative whine he used whenever he wanted me to drop an argument. "Can we just talk in private? Mom was just stressed. She didn't mean what she said about Fiona’s genetics. You know how she gets about family legacy."
"I know exactly how she gets," I said, stepping backward toward my office door. "And by 2:00 PM today, the IRS is going to know, too."
Wendy’s sunglasses slipped down the bridge of her nose. Her mouth opened in shock. "What did you say?"
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"Check your business email, Wendy," I said, offering her a sweet, razor-sharp smile. "I just sent you a copy of the duplicate ledger for Vance Properties. You have six hours to hire a very expensive criminal defense lawyer."
I turned on my heel, stepped into my office, and shut the heavy frosted glass door behind me.
