PART 3
Chloe turned to Flynn, her voice rising in pitch. “Flynn, what is your father talking about?!”
Flynn swallowed hard, refusing to look up. “Our commercial division is navigating a temporary liquidity crunch, Chloe.”
Marcus Reed closed his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. “There’s no point in glossing over it anymore, Flynn.”
Chloe backed away from her new husband, her face turning pale beneath her wedding makeup. “What crunch?!”
Marcus answered flatly, “We have nearly two hundred million dollars in debt obligations maturing over the next quarter.”
Chloe gasped. “You told my parents your firm was expanding across the region!”
“That was the expansion plan,” Flynn muttered.
“Then what happened?!”
Marcus turned a pleading gaze back toward Luca. “Vance Global’s private equity arm was reviewing our file to enter as a primary strategic buyout investor.”
Chloe finally understood. She hadn’t married into an unstoppable financial empire; she had married into a family that desperately needed a multi-million-dollar lifeline to keep their doors open.
Marcus took another step toward Luca. “Your risk assessment team finished the final audit on Friday, Mr. Vance. We were simply waiting for your personal authorization.”
Luca didn’t answer immediately. He looked down at the dark wine stain on my dress, then looked up at my father, and finally at Marcus Reed.
“That is correct,” Luca said smoothly.
Marcus let out a breath of relief. “Then we can finalize the paperwork on Monday morning?”
“No.”
A single word.
Marcus went completely rigid. “Pardon me?”
“I am not authorizing the transaction,” Luca stated flatly.
The entire ballroom fell dead silent once again.
“Mr. Vance, please!” Marcus begged, panic bleeding through his voice. “Whatever occurred between Jessi’s family here tonight has absolutely nothing to do with our corporate deal!”
Luca gestured casually toward the nearby tables. “You were sitting less than thirty feet away, Mr. Reed.”
Marcus stammered, “I… I didn’t realize she was your wife!”
Luca offered a cold, humorless smile. “Precisely.”
Marcus blinked, thrown off. “That’s… that’s the issue?”
“That is the exact issue,” Luca said. “An investment of this scale evaluates the character of the partners we choose to do business with. You watched a man humiliate his daughter in front of three hundred people and chuckled along with the rest of the room.”
My father interjected loudly, stepping between them. “Now wait just a minute! You cannot turn a minor private family disagreement into a commercial retaliation!”
Luca looked at my father with absolute contempt. “I am not retaliating. I am making a sound business judgment. I do not partner with people who lack basic human decency.”
Marcus Reed began sweating profusely through his collar. “We can rectify this, Mr. Vance! Please!”
“Another investment group will have to make that call,” Luca replied coldly.
Chloe burst into tears, turning on Flynn. “Flynn, tell me this isn’t happening! Tell me our wedding isn’t built on a lie!”
Flynn had no answers.
My mother slowly walked over to me. For the first time in my entire life, the habitual contempt on her face was gone, replaced by pure, unadulterated fear.
“Jessi…” she whispered.
I didn’t respond.
“Jessi, why didn’t you ever tell us who Luca was?” she pleaded softly.
“Because I didn’t want you to know,” I said.
“But we are your family!”
I almost laughed out loud. “Ten minutes ago, Arthur called me a worthless disappointment in front of three hundred guests.”
“He was… he had a few drinks, Jessi!”
“And you sat there and laughed, Wendy.”
Her face collapsed. “It was an awkward situation!”
“Awkward for me,” I corrected her. “Amusing for you.”
Even now, faced with total exposure, she couldn’t see past her own ego. Everything had to revolve around her social comfort.
My father took a deep, steadying breath. His voice suddenly shifted into a warm, paternal tone he had never once used with me in thirty-two years.
“Alright, Jessi,” he said softly. “We made some mistakes.”
Luca watched him with a razor-sharp gaze, knowing exactly what was coming.
“Jessi, sweetheart,” my father continued, stepping closer. “You should have trusted your father.”
I looked at him. “No.”
“We can start fresh, as a family,” he urged.
“Why?”
