Chapter 6 - THE CAKE WAS A DISTRACTION
The verification attempt failed.
My shareholder app required facial recognition.
Whoever opened it could not complete the authorization.
Then, three minutes later, Luca created chaos.
My face went into the cake.
Everyone looked toward us.
Phoebe moved away from my purse.
Guests stood.
Phones came out.
The ballroom became noise.
During those ninety seconds, a second attempt was made.
This time using my PIN.
Wrong.
Then another.
Wrong.
Then the account locked.
Someone had been trying to activate the proxy while I was covered in frosting and blood.
My stomach turned.
Rachel asked:
“Who knew your PIN?”
“No one.”
Then I remembered.
Luca once watched me unlock the app at home.
He joked:
“Four digits between you and an empire?”
I changed the PIN afterward.
Maybe that saved me.
The attempted authorization came from my own phone.
The device location remained inside the ballroom.
Hotel security footage showed Daniel Kress near my table during the cake incident.
Then Wendy.
Then no one.
Police and corporate counsel handled the rest.
I stopped trying to solve every piece myself.
That was new.
Then Luca’s attorney changed strategy.
He claimed I had planned the entire situation to trigger the prenup clause and eliminate Luca from my assets.
Interesting.
He accused me of provoking the cake incident.
Two hundred witnesses said otherwise.
Video showed Luca grabbing me without warning.
Audio captured:
“Smile, Jessi. Don’t embarrass me.”
Then older evidence surfaced.
Phoebe’s envelope contained photographs of my bruised wrist.
A medical visit.
Screenshots of Luca threatening to break my phone.
Voice messages.
One:
If you ever walk out on me again, don’t bother coming back.
Another:
When we’re married, you won’t get to run to Phoebe every time we fight.
The pattern mattered.
Then Rachel found something in the prenup negotiations.
Luca’s attorney had objected to the domestic-abuse clause.
Repeatedly.
Vincent had instructed him to accept it anyway.
Why?
An email answered.
Vincent:
She’ll never use it. Jessi avoids public confrontation. Luca knows how to keep private matters private.
They had calculated my silence.
That was the bet.
Then another email:
Once shares are aligned, clause exposure is manageable.
I stared.
They knew the clause existed.
They simply believed control would arrive before I ever invoked it.
Then Hartwell’s forensic review of Apex uncovered a $22 million receivable from a customer that barely existed.
The acquisition valuation began collapsing.
Vincent’s lenders issued formal default notices.
And Luca sent me one final message:
IF MY FATHER GOES DOWN, YOU’RE COMING WITH US.
May you like
For the first time, I wasn’t afraid of the threat.
I was afraid of what evidence he might try to manufacture next.
