Chapter 5 - THE WIFE HE NEVER DIVORCED
Matteo called twelve times.
Clara answered on the thirteenth.
Not because thirteen was meaningful.
Because she had found a lawyer.
Naomi Foster.
International estate and fraud specialist.
Clara did not meet Matteo alone again.
They sat across from each other in Naomi's office.
No Vivienne.
Important.
Naomi began.
"First issue: marital status."
Matteo swallowed.
Clara looked at him.
Naomi continued.
"Mr. De Luca, did you ever file for divorce?"
"No."
"Annulment?"
"No."
"Did Mrs. De Luca?"
"No."
"Then legally, absent a valid declaration of death that terminated marital status under applicable jurisdiction, this requires analysis."
Clara frowned.
"What does that mean?"
The death presumption had administrative effects.
But body unrecovered.
International complications.
Matteo had never legally remarried.
Vivienne was a fiancée, not wife.
Clara laughed bitterly.
"Congratulations. You cheated on your dead wife."
Matteo winced.
"I thought you left me."
"I thought you were dead."
"Clara—"
Naomi raised a hand.
"Emotional liability is outside my hourly rate."
Clara almost liked her.
Second issue:
The trust.
Charles Laurent's firm had transferred millions through consulting entities.
Luxury property.
Security invoices.
Private jet use.
Investment losses.
One beneficiary of several entities:
Vivienne Laurent.
Matteo stared.
"She knew."
Naomi replied:
"At least financially benefited."
Different from knowing everything.
Evidence mattered.
Then Naomi showed Clara something unexpected.
Under the original Bellini settlement, spousal protections existed.
If Matteo was incapacitated or presumed dead, a portion should have been allocated to Clara.
Amount:
€2 million.
"Where did it go?"
Naomi looked at Matteo.
"Someone submitted a spousal waiver."
Clara laughed.
"I didn't sign anything."
Forgery.
The signature looked close.
But wrong.
Date:
Four months after the yacht explosion.
Clara had been in Cincinnati that day.
Working double shifts.
She could prove it.
Matteo looked physically ill.
"They stole from you too."
Clara stared.
"Don't say too like we're on the same team."
He nodded.
Fair.
Then came the worse document.
A letter allegedly from Clara.
Matteo, I cannot live waiting for someone who may never return. Please do not contact me. I accept the settlement and release all claims.
Clara read it.
No.
The language was wrong.
She never called him Matteo in letters.
Always Teo.
Small thing.
Huge proof emotionally.
Matteo whispered:
"I read that."
"What?"
"Charles gave it to me after the clinic."
His eyes filled.
"That's why I stopped trying."
Clara stared.
She had spent three years believing Matteo had died.
Matteo spent three years believing Clara chose money and abandoned him.
Someone had built two graves from paperwork.
Naomi said:
"We need forensic comparison."
Yes.
But Clara already knew.
Then Matteo asked:
"Can I say something?"
"No."
He stopped.
That surprised her.
Good.
She looked at him.
"Actually, say it."
He breathed.
"I am sorry I didn't fight harder."
Clara's face tightened.
"I had brain trauma."
"I know."
"I was scared."
"I know."
"I believed documents."
"I know."
He stared.
"But?"
"Those things explain why you disappeared."
She leaned forward.
"They do not explain the last year."
His face changed.
"Vivienne knew I was alive to you."
"Yes."
"And you never asked why your wife never filed for divorce?"
Silence.
"I thought death declaration made it irrelevant."
"You wanted it to be irrelevant."
He looked down.
There.
Truth.
"I was trying to build a life."
"So was I."
"But you thought I was dead."
"Exactly."
She wiped her eyes.
"You had uncertainty. I had a coffin."
Matteo broke.
No defense.
Good.
May you like
Naomi gave them both tissues and charged by the hour.
Probably.
