Chapter 10 - AMELIA'S PLAN
Amelia didn't deny it.
“I wanted you out.”
At least she was direct.
“Out of the family?”
“Out of the marriage before Mom and Grant knew you were pregnant.”
“But they already knew.”
“I didn't know that.”
Her plan was crude.
Bring Vanessa back.
Let me see Luke with the woman he had once loved.
Remind me how emotionally absent my marriage had become.
Hope I chose myself before the baby made leaving harder.
I stared at her.
“You manipulated me.”
“Yes.”
“For my own good?”
She winced.
“When you say it like that, I sound like Mom.”
“You do.”
She sat back.
“I was desperate.”
Why not tell me about the trust?
Because she lacked proof.
Why not tell Luke?
Because Luke defended Isabella reflexively.
Accurate.
Why Vanessa?
Because Luke had never fully closed that chapter.
That hurt.
Amelia didn't soften it.
“Luke never cheated with Vanessa.”
“I didn't ask.”
“But emotionally? He kept part of that relationship preserved.”
I knew.
That was why sparkling water mattered.
Not because he loved Vanessa more.
Because he was capable of attentive memory.
He had simply stopped using it with me.
Then Luke entered.
Amelia looked annoyed.
“I told you not to come.”
“I own the building.”
“That's not charming anymore.”
He looked at me.
“I know.”
He sat.
Then said something I didn't expect.
“I was going to propose to Vanessa once.”
Before me.
Years earlier.
He had bought a ring.
Never used it.
His father convinced him the match was politically messy because the Russell family had financial exposure.
Luke ended things.
Not because he stopped loving her.
Because he chose family expectation.
Then he met me.
“I loved you.”
Past tense?
He corrected himself.
“I love you.”
I looked away.
“That doesn't fix neglect.”
“I know.”
“Or make our marriage good.”
“I know.”
He had become very good at saying that.
Then Luke admitted the dinner affected him too.
Seeing Vanessa reminded him how much of himself he'd allowed family obligations to bury.
He wasn't planning an affair.
But he had emotionally abandoned me long before she entered the room.
“That is why I'm not contesting the divorce.”
That landed differently.
I looked at him.
“You're letting me go?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I don't own you enough to let you do anything.”
Better answer.
“I mean I won't use the pregnancy, trust, money, or family pressure to stop you.”
Silence.
Then Maya called.
Grant had disappeared.
Police had moved after Isabella provided Peter's instructions.
Grant fled before arrest.
Samuel Price too.
Charles Russell was cooperating.
But Grant had taken one thing from the Morgan archive.
The original trust ledger.
Without it, the family could delay transfer rights for years.
Why would he care?
Because the ledger also contained proof of another beneficiary.
May you like
A child nobody had mentioned.
Luke had an older half-brother.
