“Enough.”
Gavin appeared instantly.
“Take your hand off her.”
Lucas released me.
Then he laughed bitterly.
“You all think she’s won?”
Something in his voice changed.
Beatrice looked at him sharply.
“Lucas.”
“No, Mom. She wants business? Let’s talk business.”
He turned toward me.
“You may own the company.”
“I do.”
“But you don’t own the building.”
My stomach dropped.
Lucas saw it.
And smiled.
There it was.
The move Elena had warned me about.
He continued.
“The property sale closes today.”
One of the investors whispered, “What property?”
Lucas looked around the room.
“This building.”
Beatrice sat down slowly.
Her confidence returned.
Lucas stepped closer.
“The landlord accepted an offer from Coastal Meridian Holdings six weeks ago.”
I knew that company too.
Another shell.
“What happens when your lease renewal comes up next year?” Lucas asked. “What happens when the new owner triples your rent?”
Beatrice lifted her wine again.
“There are different ways to own a restaurant, sweetheart.”
My hands went cold.
Lucas leaned close.
“You should have spoken to me before humiliating my mother.”
Then the restaurant’s front door opened.
Mina Shah walked in carrying a black leather briefcase.
Behind her came Elena.
And behind Elena came a man in his sixties whom Lucas immediately recognized.
His face changed.
“Mr. Keating?”
Thomas Keating had owned the Lumina building for twenty-one years.
Lucas looked at him.
“What are you doing here?”
Keating removed his sunglasses.
“Closing a property sale.”
Lucas smiled.
“Exactly.”
Keating frowned.
“Not with you.”
The smile vanished.
Beatrice rose so fast her chair struck the floor.
“What?”
Mina placed her briefcase on the table.
“Mr. Keating’s attorney discovered something unusual in your purchase documents.”
Lucas said nothing.
Mina withdrew a page.
“The tenant estoppel certificate.”
I recognized my signature immediately.
Except I had never signed it.
Mina turned the document around.
“That’s a forged signature.”
Serena stepped backward from Lucas.
He stared at me.
“You can’t prove—”
“I can,” I said.
Because my real signature had one small peculiarity Lucas had never noticed.
My full legal signature was Camilla Isabel Reyes.
On restaurant documents I signed C. I. Reyes.
The forged certificate read Camilla Mercer.
A name I had never used professionally.
Keating’s expression hardened.
“My attorney stopped the transaction.”
Beatrice’s voice shook.
“So who bought the building?”
I looked at Mina.
She smiled.
Then she handed me a key.
I placed it on the table.
“I did.”
Nobody spoke.
Lucas laughed.
Actually laughed.
“With what money?”
“Not yours.”
“Camilla, this building cost four million dollars.”
“Four point two.”
His face twisted.
“You don’t have four million dollars.”
“No.”
I looked toward the kitchen.
Gavin stood beside two servers, our pastry chef, our sommelier and three line cooks.
