“Cora! Have you lost your mind?” Rob roared, glaring at his sister in pure disgust. “You committed felony bank fraud against your own son and his pregnant wife?” “It was for the family!” Cora shrieked hysterically, pointing wildly at Vita. “She’s an outsider!”
“She was going to take everything from us! Marc bought this house!” “That is where your greatest delusion lies, Cora,” Vita spoke up quietly, opening the green buckram binder. She pulled out a crisp, gold-embossed title certificate and slid it across the mahogany table directly in front of Cora.
“Marc didn’t buy this estate alone, Cora,” Vita said with absolute serenity. “When Marc’s architectural firm was in its infancy five years ago, it was my family’s generational foundation—the Sable Heritage Trust—that provided the four-million-dollar collateral guarantee to secure his commercial bonds.”
“In return, this estate was purchased and deeded under the Vita Sable Valli Living Trust. Marc is the co-trustee. I am the sole titular owner.” Cora stared at the legal seals, her breath wheezing in her chest as the room spun around her.
“No… no, that’s impossible…” “It is one hundred percent legal and binding,” Toto confirmed. “Mrs. Vita Valli has always held one hundred percent legal ownership of this estate. Marc agreed to this arrangement four years ago to protect his family’s assets from corporate liability.”
Vita looked Cora dead in the eye, quoting the exact words my mother had spat at her twelve hours earlier: “‘Being married to him on paper doesn’t mean a single square inch of this property belongs to you.’ Those were your exact words, Cora.”
“But the reality is: not a single brick of this estate belongs to you. Or to Cleo.” The dining hall was so silent you could hear the tick of the antique grandfather clock in the foyer. Cleo burst into hysterical sobs, dropping her fork to the floor.
“Marc, please! I only did what Mom told me to do! She told me you wanted me to have the master bedroom! She told me Vita agreed!” “You wore my wife’s maternity dress to this table, Cleo,” I replied, my voice completely devoid of mercy.
