Silence slammed down over the kitchen like a heavy iron gate, thick and suffocating.
Clara: What forty million dollars? Julian, what is she talking about?
Julian: She's twisting things, Clara. It's complicated estate law. You don't understand how my grandfather's trust works.
Clara: Explain it to me right now. No legal jargon. Tell me the truth.
Maya: He won't tell you, so I will. Julian’s late grandfather set up a generational trust fund. Forty million dollars in real estate holdings and offshore accounts.
Evelyn: Silence! You signed a non-disclosure agreement when you broke off the engagement with Richard!
Maya: That agreement became void the moment you planned a felony under this roof!
Maya pulled several folded sheets of printed paper from her brown envelope and slapped them onto the kitchen island.
Maya: Read clause seven, Clara. The grandfather despised Evelyn's greed. He wrote a contingency clause. If Julian has a surviving biological child, the entire estate bypasses Julian and goes into an irrevocable trust for the child until age twenty-five.
Clara: And if... if there is no child?
Maya: If Julian remains childless by his thirty-fifth birthday next month, the full capital liquidates directly into Julian and Evelyn’s joint offshore account. Free and clear. No trustee, no oversight, no limits.
My knees gave out slightly, and I had to grip the edge of the granite counter to keep from falling.
Clara: Your thirty-fifth birthday is in two weeks, Julian.
Julian: Clara, look at me. Look at my eyes. Do you really believe I could hurt our baby? Our flesh and blood?
Clara: Then why did you brew that tea behind closed doors? You told me you bought it at the farmers market!
Evelyn: Julian, stop defending yourself to this woman. We gave her a home, we gave her status, we paid off her mother's hospital debts!
Clara: You paid off my mother's debts so you could force me to sign that prenup!
Julian: That prenup was standard procedure! Every wealthy family uses them!
Maya: Check page four of your prenup, Clara. You gave up all custody rights and spousal support in the event of an annulment or medically unviable pregnancy. They planned this from the very beginning.