Chapter 6: What Foss Filed First
The secondary clause was on page forty-one.
Marsh found it in eleven minutes.
Luca watched his attorney's face while he read it — watched the careful professional composure do what Elena's had done in the study the week before, hold and then begin, quietly, to fail.
"Read it to me," Luca said.
Marsh set the folder on the desk.
"'In the event that an acknowledged heir of Luca Vincent Costello is subsequently determined, through legal challenge, to have been conceived outside of a formally registered partnership or legal marriage, and such a challenge is upheld by a court of competent jurisdiction, the heir's claim to the trust share shall be rendered void, and the share shall revert in full to the surviving co-beneficiary.'"
The room was very quiet.
"He built a trap," Luca said.
"Yes." Marsh closed the folder.
"If you acknowledge Maya, Marco challenges her legitimacy in court.
She was born outside of marriage.
The clause is written broadly enough that a sympathetic judge could uphold it." He paused.
"Marco would have spent years preparing for exactly this scenario.
He would have attorneys ready.
He would have the argument structured."
"How long would a challenge take?"
"Months.
Possibly longer.
And during the challenge, the trust is frozen." Marsh looked at him.
"He doesn't need to win, Luca.
He just needs to tie it up long enough to move the remaining assets somewhere you can't reach them."
Luca sat with this.
"He told me to ask about it," he said.
"He wanted me to find it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Marsh was quiet for a moment.
"Because he wants you to feel like you've already lost.
He wants you to decide that acknowledging Maya publicly exposes her to a legal fight she can't win, and that the kindest thing you can do for her is to leave things as they are." He paused.
"He's betting that you'll protect her by backing down."
Luca looked at the folder.
"He doesn't know her very well," he said.
"He doesn't know you very well either," Marsh said.
"Not anymore."
Luca wheeled to the window.
The baseball diamond was empty.
It was a school day.
Maya would be back through the hedge by four o'clock.
She would do the turn again and probably mess it up again and laugh at herself again, and she would not know that her uncle had spent the morning trying to use her existence as a weapon.
"Is there a way around the clause?" Luca said.
"Potentially." Marsh leaned forward.
"The clause specifies a legal challenge upheld by a court.
It does not specify that the challenge cannot be preempted." He chose his next words carefully.
"If you were to marry Elena Harper before formally acknowledging Maya, the legitimacy clause becomes significantly harder to apply.
A court would have to argue that a child born before her parents' marriage is illegitimate even after the marriage — which is not the standard in Illinois family law."
Luca turned from the window.
"You're suggesting I propose to a woman I've known for six weeks," he said.
"I'm explaining the legal landscape," Marsh said.
"What you do with it is your decision."
Luca looked at him for a long moment.
"Get me the challenge clause in writing," he said.
"Every word.
And find out who Foss's surviving partners are.
I want to know who else he filed documents for in the year before he d*ed."
"You think there's more."
"Marco told me I don't know everything yet," Luca said.
"He was right.
But he made the mistake of telling me that to my face." He picked up his phone.
"Which means he's not as far ahead as he thinks he is."
He called Ren.
"The girl and her mother," he said.
"I want two men on them.
Quiet.
They don't need to know.
But nobody gets near them without my knowledge."
"Already done," Ren said.
"Since this morning."
Luca looked at the phone for a moment.
"Good," he said.
He ended the call.
Marsh was still at the desk, making notes in the careful, precise hand of a man who had decided this was the most important file he currently held.
Outside, the lake was flat and silver in the late morning light.
Somewhere in the city, Marco was sitting across from his attorney, building the case he had been preparing for years.
He had a head start.
But he had also, Luca now understood, made one critical error.
May you like
He had come to the estate to look at Maya.
And he had done it on camera.
