Chapter 8 - Five Million Dollars
Maya stared at the settlement document.
“You’re offering me five million dollars?”
Rocky sat across from her lawyer.
“For Emma’s future.”
Maya almost laughed.
“You fed her from a dog bowl.”
Rocky’s face tightened.
“That happened afterward.”
The room went silent.
He realized his mistake.
Maya leaned forward.
“So you admit you knew about all of this before that day.”
Martin Cole, sitting beside Rocky, closed his eyes.
Rocky recovered quickly.
“I’m saying emotions became heated.”
“Emma is five.”
“She’s resilient.”
Maya’s chair moved back sharply.
Samuel touched her arm.
Not to silence her.
To remind her they were recording the negotiation with everyone’s consent.
Rocky continued.
“Take the money.”
“No.”
“You’ll never need to work again.”
“No.”
“Emma will have everything.”
“She already has what matters.”
Rocky scoffed.
“Don’t be sentimental.”
Maya looked directly at him.
“That’s your problem.”
Rocky’s expression darkened.
“You think Thomas Avery wanted Luke? He didn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He stayed away.”
“Because Eleanor asked him to.”
Rocky’s jaw moved.
For the first time, Maya realized he knew more than he admitted.
“How much of Thomas’s correspondence did you read?”
Rocky went quiet.
“Enough.”
Samuel leaned forward.
“Then you knowingly destroyed estate-related evidence.”
Martin whispered:
“Rocky, stop talking.”
Rocky ignored him.
“You people are turning a family mistake into a circus.”
Maya’s voice sharpened.
“No.”
“You turned a child into an enemy because she could expose you.”
Rocky stood.
“Expose what?”
“That you knew Luke might not be yours.”
Rocky froze.
Maya placed Eleanor’s old letter on the table.
His signature sat at the bottom.
The same signature sample forensic experts had now compared with other documents.
The same signature connecting him to decades of knowledge.
Rocky stared.
“You had no right to that.”
“Luke had every right.”
“He’s dead.”
Maya stood too.
“And that’s why you thought you could erase him.”
Rocky grabbed the settlement papers.
“You’ll regret this.”
Maya didn’t move.
“No.”
“You will.”
He leaned closer.
“When those test results come back, you may discover Luke was nobody’s son.”
Maya’s voice softened.
“Luke was Emma’s father.”
Rocky looked away.
“That’s enough for me.”
He left.
Three days later, the genetic results arrived.
Samuel called Maya into his office.
He did not tell her over the phone.
That frightened her.
When she arrived, he placed the sealed report in front of her.
Maya opened it.
Read one line.
Then covered her mouth.
Thomas Avery and Luke Bennett were biologically father and son.
The probability exceeded 99.99%.
But Samuel was staring at a second page.
“What?”
He turned it toward her.
Thomas’s trust had another clause.
One nobody had discussed yet.
If Luke was proven to be Thomas’s biological son after Thomas’s death—
May you like
Emma did not inherit forty-two million dollars.
She inherited controlling rights worth significantly more.
