Chapter 4 - THE MASK SLIPS
For a brief, pathetic moment, Luca tried to bluff.
"You’re being dramatic," he spat, attempting to laugh it off as he slammed the laptop shut. "Mom’s memory is failing. She gets confused, she hallucinates things, and you—you’ve always been paranoid ever since you moved abroad. We took care of this house because it was rotting away!"
"Is that why you’re wearing Dad’s robe and making a sixty-eight-year-old woman scrub red wine off the floor in a maid's uniform?" I asked, closing the distance between us until I was standing right across the desk from him.
"She wanted to feel useful!" Luca shouted, his voice cracking slightly as panic pierced through his bravado. "She likes cleaning! It keeps her mind sharp!"
"Don't you dare lie to me," I snapped, slamming my palm down on the desk. The sharp crack echoed through the study. "I heard every word of your phone call, Luca. I saw the bank notices. I have the forensic audit right here on my phone."
Wendy appeared in the doorway then, drawn by the commotion, a half-empty glass of wine in her hand. Her eyes widened as she saw me standing there, towering over her husband.
"Oh," Wendy gasped, clutching her pearls. "You’re back. Well, since you’re here, let’s get one thing straight, Jessi. You abandoned this family six years ago. You flew off to live your fancy corporate life while we stayed behind, wiping Mom’s chin and managing this massive estate. We earned this house. Your money was just compensation for the labor we put in!"
"Labor?" I laughed, a cold, humorless sound. "You hired a fake nurse to drug her memory, stole my mail, forged a deed, and treated my mother like an indentured servant while living off my remittances. That’s not labor, Wendy. That’s a felony."
Wendy’s face contorted into a snarl. The mask of polite suburban luxury shattered instantly. "You think the police are going to care? Try proving it! Mom signed the care authorization papers herself—even if she didn’t know what she was signing. If you make a scene, we’ll institutionalize her. We’ll put her in a state-run home where you’ll never find her, and you’ll spend the next ten years in court trying to stop us!"
There it was. The true face of the monsters living in my house. They didn’t just want my money; they held my mother hostage as emotional leverage.
Before Luca could lunge toward the desk to grab the laptop, the front door downstairs flew open with a deafening crash. Heavy, synchronized footsteps swarmed the hallway.
"Police! Nobody move!" a voice bellowed through the house.
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Luca froze, his eyes darting wildly toward the doorway. "What... what is this?"
I stepped back, tilting my head with a sweet, lethal smile. "Oh, that? That would be Detective Vance and a warrant for grand identity theft, wire fraud, and elder abuse. And Marcus is already filing an emergency injunction to freeze every single asset under Apex Holdings."
