Chapter 3 - The Postnup“What postnup?”
Monica grabbed the phone.
“Nothing.”
“You just received a message telling you not to tell me about it.”
“My mother is interfering.”
“Then explain.”
Monica looked toward Rosa.
“Can we not do this in front of staff?”
Adrian almost laughed.
“You put my son in a trash bin in front of the entire house.”
Rosa quietly left.
Adrian carried Eli into the den and placed him on the sofa with a blanket.
The toddler remained asleep.
Then Adrian returned to the doorway.
“Talk.”
Monica crossed her arms.
“My mother thinks our prenup is unfair.”
“To whom?”
“To me.”
“You had your own lawyer review it.”
“I was in love.”
“So was I.”
Monica’s expression tightened.
“You had everything before I arrived.”
“And you knew that.”
“The company. This house. Your family trust.”
“Yes.”
“And if you die tomorrow, almost everything eventually goes to Eli.”
“He’s my son.”
“There.”
“What?”
“That tone.”
Adrian stared.
“What tone?”
“Like that ends every conversation.”
“When the conversation is whether my child should inherit from me, it pretty much does.”
Monica laughed bitterly.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then help me.”
She looked toward the stairs.
“My mother thinks I need protection.”
“From me?”
“From becoming forty-five and discovering I spent my best years raising someone else’s child while you kept everything in his name.”
Adrian felt sick.
“Is that how you see Eli?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You just did.”
Monica rubbed her temples.
“My mother asked Martin to draft options. That’s all.”
“Options for what?”
“A postnuptial agreement.”
“Changing what?”
“Property rights.”
“The mansion?”
“Partly.”
“Company shares?”
Monica did not answer.
Adrian understood.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
She looked away.
“Twenty percent.”
Adrian stared.
Twenty percent of Mercer Development would be worth tens of millions.
“And the house?”
“Joint ownership.”
“You and your mother have been meeting with an attorney in my library to plan how to convince me to give you company equity and half my house?”
“It isn’t like that.”
“What is it like?”
“Security.”
That word.
Adrian heard Helena inside it.
Monica continued.
“If we have a child, things change.”
“If?”
She went silent.
Adrian had wanted another child eventually.
Monica had repeatedly delayed.
He never pressured her.
Now something clicked.
“You told your mother Eli being my only heir was a problem.”
“No.”
“Rosa heard Helena.”
Monica’s eyes hardened.
“You’ve been discussing our private conversations with the housekeeper?”
“Stop changing the subject.”
Monica paced.
“My mother worries that if something happens to you, I become a guest in the home I helped build.”
“You did not build this house.”
Her face flashed.
“That is exactly what Helena said you would say.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Your mother doesn’t get to turn facts into insults.”
“You don’t think I contributed?”
“To our marriage? Yes. To this property financially? No.”
Monica looked wounded.
Adrian might have softened before today.
Not now.
“None of this explains what you did to Eli.”
Monica’s voice became cold again.
“He is always between us.”
“He is two years old.”
“You cancel dinners because he’s sick.”
“He’s my child.”
“You leave trips early because he misses you.”
“He’s my child.”
“You compare everything I do with Natalie.”
Adrian stopped.
“That isn’t true.”
“You don’t have to say her name.”
Monica’s eyes filled.
“The entire house says it.”
Adrian looked around the den.
Natalie’s photographs were not everywhere.
There were three.
One in Eli’s room.
One in Adrian’s study.
One family photograph in a hallway because Adrian wanted Eli to know his mother.
Monica had always said she supported that.
“Did you want me to erase her?”
“I wanted you to choose the family you have now.”
“I did.”
“No. You chose him.”
Adrian looked toward the sleeping toddler.
“There should never have been a competition.”
Monica’s face changed.
Not remorse.
Recognition.
Maybe she finally realized how ugly the sentence sounded.
Adrian’s phone rang.
His attorney, Rebecca Shaw.
He stepped into the hall.
“Rebecca.”
“What happened?”
“I need to know whether anyone has contacted you about changing my prenup.”
Silence.
Then:
“Actually, yes.”
Adrian’s heart sank.
“When?”
“Martin Vale contacted my office six weeks ago.”
“What did he ask?”
“Whether you had independently mentioned estate restructuring.”
“I hadn’t.”
“I told him I couldn’t discuss your affairs.”
“Did he send anything?”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked toward Monica.
“What?”
“A proposed term sheet.”
Rebecca paused.
“Adrian, there was one provision I found unusual.”
“What?”
“It proposed that if you became incapacitated, Monica would receive interim voting authority over certain Mercer family interests.”
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“What does Eli have to do with that?”
Rebecca answered carefully.
“Another provision would have postponed control rights for any minor beneficiary until age thirty-five.”
Adrian stared at his wife.
May you like
The postnup was not only about giving Monica security.
It was about shifting power away from Eli’s future inheritance.
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