- 15 hours ago
He Faked Illness To Betray Me
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:03Brooklyn, 10 degrees, 3 days of snow.
00:06I shoved a flyer into a stranger's hand.
00:08Please, my husband is missing.
00:09Memory loss.
00:10My father is offering $3 million cash to anyone who finds him, plus unlimited medical care
00:14for life.
00:15$3 million.
00:16She walked past me without a word.
00:1820 feet away, my father leaned on his cane, coughing blood into his glove.
00:2172 years old, kneeling in the slush, begging strangers to look at Sean's photo.
00:26My mother worked the other corner.
00:27Three days, no food, no sleep, for Sean.
00:31Three years ago, Sean took shrapnel for my father at a compound attack.
00:34Saved his life.
00:35From the hospital bed onward, my father took him in as a godson.
00:39Bought him a peddick for his birthday.
00:40Put his name on the family Christmas card.
00:42So when my father suggested I marry the man who saved him, I said yes.
00:46My phone buzzed.
00:47Tiffany Cole, Sean's rehabilitation nurse.
00:50I picked up.
00:51Said nothing.
00:51Hit record.
00:52Ava, sweetie.
00:53Sean's been so confused lately.
00:55I just want to make sure he's safe.
00:56Call me the second you find him, okay?
00:58Sure.
00:58If you hear anything, let me know.
01:01I was about to hang up.
01:03Then I heard it through the line.
01:04A woman moaning.
01:05Sean, fuck me harder.
01:07I froze on the sidewalk.
01:09Sean.
01:10My husband of three years.
01:13I'll find him.
01:14Go home.
01:15I flagged a cab and slammed the door.
01:19I sewed a tracker into Sean's coat yesterday.
01:22The dot was blinking from Brooklyn Heights.
01:25The most expensive block in the borough.
01:28A penthouse owned by a shell company.
01:31And that shell company was ours.
01:3420 minutes later, I stepped into the private elevator.
01:37When the doors opened, I saw something I'll never forget.
01:42Sean had Tiffany bent over the marble island.
01:45His hand fisted in her hair, his shirt half open.
01:48Sean laughed into her shoulder.
01:50Did the three million hit?
01:52Yesterday.
01:54Old man didn't even blink.
01:55Tiffany laughed.
01:57Ava really thinks you can't remember her name?
01:59She thinks I'm brain damaged.
02:01I play one amnesia scene a week.
02:03And she signs whatever I put in front of her.
02:06By Christmas, the entire Moretti inheritance has my name on it.
02:09You'll always love me, won't you, honey?
02:11Even though we already have a two-year-old son together,
02:13she's still technically your wife.
02:15She's not my wife.
02:16Just a wallet with a wedding ring.
02:20If it weren't for that rich old man of hers,
02:23I wouldn't have touched a woman that boring.
02:27Don't worry, baby.
02:28I ordered your favorite Birkin.
02:29Came this afternoon.
02:31Fifty-two grand.
02:32Charged it straight to the Moretti medical card.
02:35Sean nuttered.
02:36That old man's card is a goddamn ATM.
02:39Tiffany tipped her head back, laughing.
02:41Then she saw me in the doorway.
02:43Her smile died.
02:45I held up my phone.
02:46Recording bar pulsing.
02:48Don't stop on my account.
02:50I walked in.
02:50Tiffany called me twelve minutes ago.
02:52I never hung up.
02:53Her phone on the counter is also live.
02:55So that wallet with a wedding ring line?
02:58On tape.
02:58Twice.
02:59Tiffany scrambled for her robe.
03:02Sean was fumbling with his belt.
03:03Ava, baby, where am I?
03:05I can't remember.
03:06Save it.
03:07Brain damage doesn't remember which drawer she keeps her panties in.
03:10Ava, listen.
03:11Shut up.
03:12I walked past him.
03:13Picked up the Birkin.
03:14Unzipped it.
03:15On top.
03:16Adult intuition receipt.
03:18James Cole, age two.
03:20Forty-eight thousand.
03:21Paid in full.
03:22My father's medical fund.
03:23Paying private school for another man's son.
03:25Sean's face went still.
03:27What?
03:27I held the receipt closer to him.
03:30Save it for the DNA lab.
03:34I dropped the bag at their feet.
03:36Look at me, Sean.
03:38Tell me how long.
03:39He couldn't get his pants buttoned.
03:42Ava, please.
03:42How long have you been faking it?
03:46From the start.
03:47Tiffany said it before he could stop her.
03:51Chin up.
03:52Day one in the hospital.
03:54The amnesia.
03:55The shaking.
03:57He hired me to coach him.
03:59We've been together since before the wedding.
04:01Sean's head snapped toward her.
04:03Tiffany, shut up.
04:05What's she gonna do, Sean?
04:06She has the recording.
04:08I looked at Tiffany.
04:09Pretty.
04:10Younger than me.
04:11Wearing a hundred grand of jewelry off my father's accounts.
04:16So you were pregnant when I walked down the aisle?
04:19Yes.
04:19Whose son is he?
04:21She smiled at me, like Sean's wife would smile.
04:24Ours.
04:25Mine and Sean's.
04:26Don Enzo's only grandchild.
04:28So before you do anything stupid,
04:29think about who you're cutting out of this family.
04:33I let her have the smile.
04:35I'd come back for it later.
04:37My phone rang.
04:39My mother.
04:40I put it on speaker.
04:44Ava, your father collapsed at Sean's building.
04:47He knocked on the door for four minutes.
04:49Nobody opened.
04:50I see you now.
04:52Sean went white.
04:54Four minutes.
04:55I said.
04:58The intercom camera caught it.
05:00You watched my father fall to his knees in the snow on a screen,
05:04and then you went back to fucking your whore.
05:07Ava, I didn't see it.
05:08I swear, I-
05:09Don't.
05:13I twisted off my wedding ring,
05:15and dropped it into the open burking at my feet.
05:18Keep it.
05:19He bought it with my father's money anyway.
05:22I pulled out my phone and dialed.
05:25Lucas.
05:26Lucas Vane.
05:27The Maradi family's chief counsel.
05:30Three things.
05:32One, every account in Sean Callahan's name, frozen tonight,
05:35including the Zurich one he thinks I don't know about.
05:38Two, this penthouse?
05:40Locks changed before sunrise, both of them on the sidewalk by 9 a.m.
05:44Three, every dollar that left my father's accounts in the last three years,
05:48traced and clawed back.
05:50I want a full forensic accounting on my desk by Friday.
05:53Done in 10 minutes.
05:56I hung up.
05:59Sean lunged for my arm.
06:00I slapped him across the face hard enough to leave a print.
06:03Touch me again, and I'll have Carlo here before sunrise.
06:09Carlo, my father's right hand.
06:11Sean knew exactly what being picked up by Carlo meant in this family, and he froze.
06:16I walked to the door without turning around.
06:18That slap was from my father.
06:25The door closed behind me.
06:32In the elevator, my phone was already lighting up.
06:35Lucas.
06:37Ava, your father is awake at Presbyterian.
06:40He's asking for you by name.
06:44The surgeon walked me through it.
06:47Hyperthermia.
06:48Hairline fracture in the hip.
06:50Cardiac strain from the cold.
06:5130 more minutes in the snow, and we'd be having a different conversation.
06:55My father had woken up for 10 seconds,
06:57just long enough to give the surgeon one message for me.
07:01Lucas, I want a divorce.
07:03I texted Lucas.
07:0520 minutes later, my phone rang.
07:08Ava, I've been waiting more than 10 years to hear you say that.
07:11But I'm telling you, you don't need to file for divorce.
07:15What?
07:15You were never married.
07:17The certificate is a forgery.
07:18He printed it himself.
07:19Wrong city seal, wrong filing number, wrong everything.
07:22There is no record of an Ava Marodi or Sean Callahan ever being married.
07:26Not in any city hall, in any state, on any date.
07:29What?
07:31Three years!
07:32I said.
07:33He was never my husband for one minute!
07:35Not legally.
07:37Not on paper.
07:38Not anywhere it counts.
07:39The hospital paperwork I signed two years ago.
07:42The healthcare directive he had me sign at three in the morning when Dad was on the ventilator.
07:47He used a fake marriage to walk away with three million in reward money and another 1.2 in medical
07:52funds.
07:52Pin every count there is.
07:54For jivnery, wire fraud, identity theft, grand larceny.
07:57Already drafting.
07:58A nurse stepped through the doors.
08:01Miss Moretti, your father is awake.
08:03He's asking for you.
08:05My father's eyes opened the second.
08:06I sat down beside the bed.
08:08Pale tubes in his arm.
08:10Get Lucas tonight.
08:13Wake him up.
08:14Already done.
08:15He almost smiled.
08:17That's my girl.
08:19My father walked out of the ICU on Wednesday morning.
08:22Doctors said two weeks.
08:24He told them no, he had work to do, and signed himself out against medical advice.
08:29Thursday afternoon, Sean showed up at the townhouse with the boy on his hip and a bouquet of white roses
08:34in his fist.
08:35Tiffany stood behind him in morning black.
08:37I opened the door myself.
08:39Carlo stood behind my shoulder, and there were two more men by the front gate.
08:44He doesn't want to see you.
08:44He's my godfather, Ava.
08:47Whatever happened between us, he and I are.
08:50He says he has no godson.
08:51Those were his exact words this morning.
08:53He also says you have no wife.
08:55The marriage certificate is a forgery, and you printed it yourself.
08:57Did your lawyer call you yet, or are you finding that out from me on the front store?
09:01The color went out of his face.
09:03Tiffany pushed forward with the boy.
09:06Ava, this is James.
09:08He's two.
09:08He's Sean's son.
09:09I crouched down to the boy's eye level.
09:12Dark hair.
09:13Light eyes.
09:14Nothing of Sean in his face at all.
09:17Beautiful boy.
09:18He doesn't change anything.
09:20My father wants $3,100,000 back.
09:23He's giving you 30 days.
09:24After that, whatever the family decides.
09:26Sean's whole face changed at the word family.
09:28Ava, wait.
09:28I need to talk to your father.
09:30My father stood in the snow for seven hours looking for you.
09:34He's not interested in talking to you.
09:36He's interested in his money.
09:37Tiffany clutched the boy tighter.
09:39Sean, say something to her.
09:40Sean said nothing.
09:41I shoved the bouquet back into his arms.
09:44Drop these on your way out.
09:46There's a homeless man on the corner who'll appreciate them more than I will.
09:50Carlo closed the door.
09:54My father was at his desk when I walked in.
09:57Glass of red gine at his elbow.
09:59Lucas in the chair across from him.
10:01My daughter.
10:02I owe you an apology, Ava.
10:03I put him in this house.
10:05I called him my godson.
10:06I walked you down the aisle to him because I thought a debt of honor was a good enough reason.
10:10I was wrong.
10:11Let me finish.
10:12You deserve better.
10:14I'm gonna spend whatever time I have left making that right.
10:17He turned to Lucas.
10:19You.
10:20Start.
10:20Lucas opened his briefcase.
10:22Three things, ready to go.
10:24The penthouse courting goes to every business associate in the city by morning.
10:27Tiffany's social media wiped.
10:29Sean's old consulting firm gets the evidence package by noon and drops them before lunch.
10:33DNA lab on standby for the boy.
10:35My father nodded once.
10:36Do all of it.
10:37Across town, Sean woke up in a hotel he couldn't afford and tried to swipe his card downstairs.
10:44Declined.
10:45He showered in cold water.
10:47Drove to the townhouse with his shirt still damp.
10:50The locks had been changed.
10:52Carlo answered the door.
10:54Carlo, I need to see Enzo.
10:55Mr. Callahan, you closed the door on the Don last week.
10:58Think very carefully about how loud you knock on this one.
11:01The door shut in his face.
11:03His phone rang.
11:04Unknown number.
11:05Lucas Vane, every account you can name was dead as of 15 minutes after midnight.
11:09That includes Zurich.
11:10You can't?
11:11Are you sure I can't, Sean?
11:13The line went dead.
11:14A photo arrived two seconds later.
11:16His Zurich balance.
11:17Zero.
11:21Lucas lit a second folder to cross my father's desk.
11:24The papers Sean told you were a healthcare directive.
11:27I opened it.
11:28My signature was at the bottom of every page.
11:30He told me it was for emergencies.
11:32In case I was unconscious.
11:34It was a blank check with your name on it.
11:36Three years of blank checks.
11:37The apartment, the Burkitt, the medical card, the Dalton tuition, the Hamptons rental, the bracelet she posted on Instagram.
11:43Every one of them under your signature.
11:45He used my own hand to put another woman's son through private school?
11:47For three years.
11:48Plus everything else.
11:49My father closed his eyes.
11:51When he opened them, the fire was banked, but still there.
11:55Stack everything.
11:56Every law he broke.
11:58I want him in front of a federal judge before the month is out.
12:01Already drafted, Don Enzo.
12:05Lucas's phone buzzed on the desk.
12:07He glanced down.
12:09His face changed in a way I didn't like.
12:14Ava.
12:15What?
12:16Sean is in the lobby of your downtown apartment right now.
12:18His right hand is in his coat pocket and the pocket is bulging.
12:21That was our wedding apartment.
12:24Lucas called his security from my father's study without taking his eyes off mine.
12:29Hold him.
12:29Don't disarm him.
12:30Don't let him leave.
12:31I'm 12 minutes out.
12:32He set the phone down.
12:34He won't fire it.
12:35He's not that stupid.
12:36Stay here.
12:37Carla will lock the gate.
12:38I picked his car keys off the desk.
12:41Ava.
12:42Lucas.
12:43He came for me.
12:44I want him to see who he came for.
12:46We made it across the bridge in 14 minutes.
12:48Lucas drove.
12:50The elevator opened onto the lobby and there he was.
12:53Sean.
12:54Standing by the security desk, his right hand still buried in the pocket.
12:58The pocket sagging with the weight of what was inside.
13:01I walked straight at him until there were three feet between us.
13:04Hi, Sean.
13:05Ava.
13:06I just want to talk.
13:08You came armed to a lawyer's office to talk.
13:10Tell him to drop the case.
13:12No.
13:13Ava, please.
13:14Pull it out.
13:15If you came here to use it, use it.
13:16If you didn't, hand it to the man behind you.
13:18The security guard already had his hand on Sean's wrist.
13:20Sean didn't fight him.
13:21He let the man slide the gun out of his pocket and lay it on the desk.
13:24I didn't move.
13:25I let him stand there and watch me decide whether he walked out of the building tonight or got carried
13:29out.
13:29Lucas.
13:30Press charges.
13:31Bringing a gun to threat me, add it to the stack.
13:33I turn toward the elevator.
13:35Ava, please.
13:36The elevator doors closed on his voice.
13:39Lucas brought in his forensic accountant on Friday morning.
13:42A man named Morris, 70 years old.
13:45He set a spreadsheet on the table.
13:47Moretti family money over the last three years.
13:49Here's where every dollar went.
13:50The reward money.
13:52Three million in cash transferred to a shell company in Tiffany's name within 48 hours of the wire hitting Sean's
13:59account.
14:00From the shell, it went to property purchases and a brokerage account in the Cayman.
14:06The medical trust.
14:07A hundred thousand a quarter for three years.
14:09None of it touched a hospital.
14:11All of it routed through the same shell.
14:12Then out as a Birkin.
14:14A Cartier necklace.
14:15A Patek for Sean.
14:16Dalton tuition for the boy.
14:18Eleven trips Tiffany posted on Instagram.
14:21The penthouse.
14:22My father's building.
14:23Sean had written himself a one dollar, a year lease on Meridi letterhead, and signed my father's name to it.
14:29The Hamptons house.
14:30Same trick.
14:31Morris finally looked up.
14:33Total recoverable.
14:35Four million two hundred thousand.
14:36The reward, the medical trust, the rent he didn't pay, and the interest.
14:40I have the prosecutor's package ready.
14:42A close the folder.
14:44Itemize the boy's school separately.
14:45I want my father to see exactly what number went towards another man's child.
14:49Already done.
14:50Lucas called me on Tuesday.
14:52I walked Morris to the door myself.
14:54He has 48 hours left as a free man.
14:57He'll know by Monday.
15:06The Meridian Gala was the biggest finance party of the season, Saturday night.
15:10I walked in alone in hard red, the Morelli ruby at my throat.
15:13Across the ballroom in a rented tuxedo, Sean was working a finance man whose name I knew from my father's
15:18investor list.
15:19Tiffany hung on his arm in white silk.
15:21I crossed the floor and stopped at Sean's elbow.
15:24Held my hand out to the finance man, Ava Moretti.
15:28You may know my father.
15:30I wanted to introduce myself properly.
15:32Sean Callahan has been calling himself my husband for three years, and he is not.
15:37The marriage certificate was printed on his home printer.
15:39He's also been moving money out of my father's account since the day my father took him in as a
15:44godson.
15:45Forensic countess finished pulling the receipts yesterday.
15:494.2 million dollars.
15:51The finance man took one full step backward.
15:54I raised my voice for the nearest tables.
15:57Sean Callahan does not represent the Moretti family.
16:00Any deal he has signed under our name is dead as of tonight.
16:03Pass it along.
16:04Then I turned to Tiffany.
16:05I lifted the hem of her dress, one inch with two fingers.
16:08Versace.
16:0912,000.
16:10Charge to my father's medical card.
16:12I'd ask you to give it back, but that would mean asking you to take it off in public.
16:15I dropped the hem.
16:16Took a fliss of champagne off a passing tray.
16:17Wished the finance man a lovely evening.
16:20By the time I reached the bar, my phone was buzzing.
16:23Lucas.
16:26Frozen.
16:27All of it, including the accounts he buried his mother's name.
16:29Federal cucks on Tiffany before midnight.
16:31I turned just enough to watch.
16:33Two men in plain suits had stepped into the ballroom, walking straight at her.
16:36Tiffany saw them in the mirror behind the bar, and her champagne glass hit the marble.
16:43Tiffany's social media went dark before sunrise.
16:45The eviction notice showed up on the penthouse door at 7 in the morning.
16:49Tiffany answered in a silk robe.
16:51Two men in gray uniforms flanked a woman with a clipboard.
16:53Good morning, Miss Cole.
16:55The owner has started eviction proceedings.
16:56You have 24 hours.
16:58Sean walked out of the bedroom barefoot.
17:00I'll handle this.
17:01Give us 48.
17:0224.
17:03Owner's instructions.
17:05His phone rang on the counter.
17:08His old consulting firm, telling him to come in Monday with no laptop and a security escort waiting.
17:15Tiffany picked up the Birkin off the counter.
17:17She feshed around inside and came up with my wedding ring at the bottom.
17:20She held it up.
17:21This was hers.
17:22The whole time.
17:24Tiffany.
17:24You told me you were leaving her.
17:26You told me the building was yours.
17:27The accounts were yours.
17:28The penthouse was a wedding gift from her father to you.
17:30She threw the ring at his face.
17:33It hit his cheekbone and skittered across the marble.
17:37You don't have a penny.
17:38You don't have a Zurich account.
17:40You don't have a job as of Monday.
17:42What exactly do you have, Sean?
17:44He didn't answer her.
17:46Her phone rang, Dalton's bursar, telling her James' enrollment was suspended and she had to pick him up by three.
17:52She sat down on the cold marble floor.
17:54She picked up her phone and dialed a number she hadn't dialed in two years.
17:58Derek, it's me.
17:59I need you to come.
18:02Lucas walked around his desk and sat down beside me.
18:05He set a phone on the table between us and hit play.
18:09Tiffany's voice.
18:10Ava, you have to understand.
18:12Sean came to me first.
18:13He pursued me.
18:14A second voice.
18:15Calm and male.
18:17Lucas' associate.
18:18Miss Cole, walk us through the shell company in your name.
18:21Who set it up?
18:22That was Sean's idea.
18:23And the Dalton deposit.
18:25The Paris trips.
18:26The medical card charges.
18:27I may have suggested a few of those.
18:30Lucas stopped the recording.
18:33She walked us through every amnesia scene she coached him on, every receipt she submitted under your signature, and the
18:39day they sat down together and designed the fake marriage certificate.
18:42She gave us the printer model.
18:44Charge her with all of it.
18:46Same counts as Sean.
18:47Conspiracy on top.
18:48Already filed.
18:49My phone buzzed.
18:50Unknown number.
18:50I put it on speaker.
18:51Back off.
18:52Or every dirty thing I know about your father's money goes to the press by Monday.
18:55Tiffany.
18:56You don't know anything, Tiffany.
18:57You watched Sean spend the money.
18:58You never saw where it came from.
18:59You're bluffing.
19:00I hung up.
19:00Lucas was already on his second phone.
19:02Press black out all major outlets by end of day.
19:05My phone rang again.
19:06Sean.
19:07Ava.
19:08You made a mistake going after Lucas.
19:09I made a mistake?
19:10He's making this federal.
19:12I can do 20 years for what's in that file.
19:13You should have thought about that before you spent my father's money on another man's son.
19:18I hung up.
19:19Lucas was watching me.
19:20He'll come at you again.
19:21I know.
19:22Let him.
19:24Lucas didn't pick up his briefcase.
19:26He just looked at me.
19:28Ava.
19:28There's something I need to tell you.
19:30Not here.
19:32Come to my apartment tonight.
19:34Nine o'clock.
19:35Alone.
19:36Why not here?
19:37Because what I'm about to tell you isn't a lawyer talking to a client.
19:40It's something else.
19:44Lucas's apartment.
19:4532nd floor.
19:46I'd never been inside.
19:48He opened the door in a black sweater.
19:51You came.
19:52You said nine.
19:53He poured two glasses of whiskey.
19:56Set mine on the desk behind me.
19:58Then closed the distance until I had to back up against the edge.
20:01His hand braced on the wood beside my hip.
20:04Not touching me.
20:05Close enough that I could feel it.
20:07Ten years, Ava.
20:08Lucas.
20:09I've loved you for ten years.
20:11Since the day you got married I've been in hell.
20:14Every night.
20:15Every morning.
20:17I've been asking myself the same question.
20:19Why wasn't that man me?
20:21Lucas.
20:21You're standing very close.
20:23I know.
20:26Move.
20:27Make me.
20:27I didn't.
20:28He picked up his whiskey with his free hand.
20:31Took a slow sip.
20:33Watched my mouth over the rim.
20:35Drink, Ava.
20:36You're going to need it.
20:38He pulled a single page from his jacket and set it on the desk behind me.
20:41I had to turn under his arm to read it.
20:44Sean Callahan.
20:45Combat Injury 2022.
20:46Shrapnel to the lower abdomen.
20:48Reproductive function permanently destroyed.
20:50Patient cannot father children.
20:51I read it twice.
20:53He's sterile.
20:54Since six months before the wedding.
20:55Then James was never his.
20:57Biologically impossible.
20:58Sean thinks the boy is his.
21:00He's been the mark from day one.
21:01I laughed.
21:02Couldn't stop.
21:03He thinks he's robbing my father.
21:05He's been raising another man's kid for two years on my father's money.
21:08Tiffany got pregnant by Derek Marsh and pinned it on a man who can't have children.
21:13Sean walked into it like a goddamn dog into traffic.
21:17I picked up my whiskey.
21:21Drained it.
21:23I'm taking this to him myself.
21:26Tonight, Lucas caught my wrist before I could pass him.
21:30Not tonight.
21:31Tomorrow morning.
21:32He didn't let go of my wrist.
21:34He used it to pull me back against him.
21:36His other hand slid up the side of my throat.
21:39Found the back of my neck.
21:40And tilted my face up to his.
21:42Ten years, Ava.
21:43I'm done waiting.
21:45He kissed me.
21:46Slow first.
21:48Testing.
21:49Then his tongue parted my lips and went deep.
21:52Not asking.
21:53Taking.
21:54Ten years of restraint unwound between us in one breath.
21:59My back hit the desk.
22:00The whiskey glass tipped over somewhere behind me.
22:05I didn't care.
22:07His hand fisted in my hair.
22:09Angled my mouth exactly where he wanted it.
22:12I bit his lower lip.
22:14He growled into my mouth and kissed me harder.
22:17When he finally let me breathe.
22:19His thumb dragged across my swollen bottom lip.
22:26Stay.
22:27I stayed.
22:29I walked into Sean's hotel at nine in the morning.
22:32He was eating room service like a man who still thought he had a play.
22:37I dropped the report on his plate.
22:40Read it.
22:42Ava, what is this?
22:44Read it out loud, Sean.
22:45He read it.
22:46Stopped.
22:47Read it again.
22:49This is fake.
22:50Filed by the military hospital that pulled shrapnel out of you in 2022.
22:54Lucas had it pulled from the federal records yesterday.
22:56Your signature is on the bottom.
22:58I never saw this paper.
22:59Your hospital admin desk forwarded it to your business manager.
23:03Tiffany was your assistant the year after that.
23:06Guess who had access to your private archive?
23:09James is mine.
23:11James is biologically impossible.
23:13You haven't been able to father a child since the bomb.
23:15The kid Tiffany handed you was already six months along when you slept with her the first time.
23:19Do the math.
23:19Ava.
23:20She picked a sterile soldier with a rich godfather and put another man's baby in his arms.
23:24You weren't running her.
23:25She was running you.
23:26No, she wouldn't.
23:27She did.
23:28Derek Marsh.
23:29Federal narcotics warrant.
23:30The biological father.
23:32He's been hunting her for two years to get the kid back.
23:35The kid who calls you daddy.
23:36Ava!
23:37He stood up, knocked the coffee cup over, didn't notice.
23:40You spent 4.2 million of my father's money raising another man's son.
23:44You faked a marriage to me to give that kid a last name.
23:47You watched my father fall in the snow on an intercon and went back to dinner.
23:51For a kid who was never yours.
23:53He swept the breakfast tray off the table.
23:56Plates shattered.
23:57He grabbed his hair with both hands and made a sound that wasn't a word.
24:00I sipped my coffee from the room service tray.
24:03Watched him.
24:04You're crying, Sean.
24:06You bitch!
24:07That's the first honest thing you've said in three years.
24:10I set the cup down on the dresser.
24:12I came here to see this.
24:14I'm done now.
24:15I walked to the door.
24:16Turned back with my hand on the knob.
24:18One more thing.
24:19Tiffany rolled on yesterday.
24:21By the time you get to court, you'll be the only person in the room who didn't know.
24:24I closed the door.
24:26Behind it, I heard him scream.
24:29Sean kicked Tiffany's hotel door open at noon.
24:32Tell me he's mine.
24:33Sean.
24:33Tell me!
24:34She backed up against the kitchen counter.
24:36The boy was watching cartoons in the corner.
24:39Sean, calm down.
24:40Is he mine?
24:40You read the paper.
24:41I'm asking you.
24:42Look at me and tell me he's mine.
24:44She looked at him.
24:45Then she laughed.
24:47Of course he's not yours.
24:49You can't even get hard without me telling you what to do.
24:51You think you could get someone pregnant?
24:53Tiffany.
24:53I picked you because you were sterile, Sean.
24:55Because nobody would ever ask why the kid had Derek's eyes.
24:58Because your godfather had 300 million dollars and no real grandkids.
25:02You were a shell company with a dick attached.
25:03Did you really think I loved you?
25:05He crossed the room in three steps.
25:06His hand around her throat.
25:08Her back hit the cabinets.
25:09Two years.
25:09You let me love that kid for two years.
25:11You're not a father, Sean.
25:13You're a checkbook with combat scars.
25:15He squeezed harder.
25:16Her face was turning.
25:17The boys started crying in the corner.
25:19The door behind them opened.
25:21Two NYPD officers waiting in the hallway since I called them ten minutes ago.
25:26Mr. Callahan.
25:27Hands off her.
25:28Now.
25:28He didn't let go.
25:29The first officer hit him in the back of the knee.
25:32He went down.
25:33The second pulled Tiffany away.
25:34On the ground.
25:35Hands behind your head.
25:36He was face down on the carpet.
25:38Tiffany was rubbing her throat.
25:39Still laughing.
25:40Tell him, officer.
25:41Tell him he's going down for assault on top of the fraud.
25:43Tell him I'm getting a deal because I rolled first.
25:45In the corner, the boy had stopped crying.
25:50The NYPD precinct on 13th Street has two interrogation rooms with one observation booth between them.
25:56Lucas brought the coffee.
25:58Black for him.
25:59Double cream for me.
26:00He stood close enough that his shoulder pressed against mine at the glass.
26:03Left room.
26:04Sean.
26:05Right room.
26:05Tiffany.
26:06Both being interviewed by the federal task force.
26:08Both told the other one is selling them out.
26:09Both correct.
26:10How long until they ask to be face to face?
26:12Tiffany's already asked.
26:13Let her.
26:15The detectives put them in the same room.
26:18Two chairs.
26:19One table.
26:20No cuffs yet.
26:21Sean spoke first.
26:22You bitch.
26:23Sit down, Sean.
26:26Two years.
26:27You let me change his diapers?
26:30Read him bedtime stories.
26:32You picked the wrong woman to spend your wife's father's money on.
26:35Take it like a man.
26:37You knew I was sterile!
26:38From the day I read your file, why do you think I came on to you in the first place?
26:41Because of your charm?
26:42You have the personality of wet bread.
26:44I was going to leave Ava for you.
26:46And I was going to take the three million reward in the medical trust and disappear with
26:49Derek the second his sentence dropped.
26:51You were never the plan.
26:53You were the wallet.
26:54You and the old man.
26:55Lucas reached past me and refilled my coffee.
26:58His hand stayed on my hip.
27:00She's confessing on tape, thinking she's getting a deal.
27:03He said quietly.
27:04She isn't.
27:05In the room, Sean stood up.
27:06The chair fell behind him.
27:08He went over the table at her.
27:09The detective at the door had been waiting for it.
27:11He had Sean on the ground in two seconds.
27:13Sean's nose was bleeding into the cheap carpet.
27:16Tiffy hadn't moved.
27:17She was smiling.
27:18Get him out of my room.
27:19He's contaminating my plea.
27:21Lucas turned to me.
27:22His thumb traced the inside of my wrist.
27:2520 years federal, both of them.
27:27The DA called me an hour ago.
27:2820 for him.
27:29How much for her?
27:30Six.
27:30With the cooperation.
27:31Make it 10.
27:32The kid.
27:32She knew Sean was sterile when she let him sign a custody form claiming paternity.
27:36That's federal child trafficking.
27:38Add it to her sheet.
27:39Lucas leaned in.
27:40His mouth was at my ear.
27:41You are terrifying when you're angry.
27:44I'm not angry.
27:47Sean called from holding.
27:49Ava.
27:50Collect.
27:51I picked up because I wanted to hear it.
27:53Two minutes, Sean.
27:54Make them count.
27:54It wasn't supposed to go like this.
27:57You raised a kid who wasn't yours on my father's money.
28:00What did you think this was gonna look like?
28:02I thought he was mine.
28:04That is the saddest thing you have ever said to me.
28:07And I have a recording of you calling me a wallet.
28:10Ava, please.
28:11Drop one of the counts.
28:13Anything.
28:14Federal is 20 years.
28:16You walked into my lawyer's lobby with a gun.
28:18You watched my father fall on the intercond.
28:21You let your whore tell you whose grandchild to fake.
28:25I'm not dropping anything.
28:26I have nothing left.
28:28You have 18 months to grow up before you go inside.
28:32After that, you have 20 years to figure out how Tiffany picked you out of a file backet
28:37because you were too damaged to ask the right questions.
28:40You're cruel!
28:41I'm clean.
28:43There's a difference.
28:44The recorded voice cut in.
28:46One minute remaining.
28:47Ava.
28:48The kid.
28:50Is he okay?
28:51He's being adopted by a real family.
28:53He'll forget you by Christmas.
28:55The new father picks him up from preschool.
28:58He calls him daddy now.
28:59Don't!
29:00The next time you hear his name, it'll be the day I tell my own daughter why we don't
29:04say his last name in this house.
29:06Your daughter?
29:07Goodbye, Sean.
29:08I hung up.
29:09Your daughter?
29:10Hypothetical.
29:10Lucas was waiting in the doorway.
29:13Sleeves rolled up.
29:14Loosen tie.
29:15Whiskey in his hand.
29:16He set the whiskey down on my desk, slid his hand under my jaw, and tilted my face up.
29:21Ten years of hypothetical.
29:22I want it real.
29:23Then drive.
29:26The federal lockup.
29:27Wednesday morning.
29:28Two interview rooms.
29:29Two lawyers.
29:30Two deals on the table.
29:32I watched it through the glass with Lucas.
29:34He'd brought me a coffee and a folder.
29:36They're both signing today.
29:37Whichever one cooperates harder gets the lighter sentence.
29:40We told both of them that.
29:42Did you?
29:43I lied.
29:44They're both getting 20.
29:45I just wanted to see them sell each other out for it.
29:48Lucas Vane.
29:50You wicked man.
29:51In the left room, Sean was talking fast.
29:54He was claiming Tiffany set up the shell company.
29:57Tiffany picked the printer.
29:58Tiffany picked the school.
30:00He just signed what she put in front of him.
30:02He was painting himself as the victim of a love affair gone wrong.
30:06The federal prosecutor stopped writing.
30:08Mr. Callahan.
30:09You signed your own sterility report in 2022.
30:12We have it.
30:13Your business manager filed it.
30:15Your assistant accessed it.
30:16Your assistant later became the mother of the child you raised.
30:19Are you really gonna sit there and tell us you didn't know?
30:21Sean stared at the table.
30:23Then changed direction.
30:25I wanna add something.
30:26Tiffany Cole told me last April that if Don Enzo died of a heart attack,
30:29she had a way to make it look natural.
30:31She said she had a contact at his cardiologist office.
30:34The prosecutor put down his pen.
30:36Lucas turned to me.
30:38He's lying.
30:39He's trying to bury her with him.
30:41I know.
30:43Let him build the bomb.
30:45We'll see if Tiffany has one of her own.
30:49In the right room, Tiffany was on her third cup of coffee.
30:53The prosecutor across to her had Sean's testimony in front of him.
30:57Miss Cole, your co-defendant just told us you discussed having Don Enzo Moretti killed.
31:03Care to respond?
31:04She laughed out loud.
31:06He said what?
31:07He said you have a contact at the cardiologist's office.
31:10I work in healthcare insurance, you idiots.
31:13Of course I know cardiologists.
31:15I haven't put a hit out on him.
31:17Miss Cole.
31:18Sean Callahan can't tie his own shoes without a YouTube tutorial.
31:22He couldn't plan a hit on a house plant.
31:24He's lying because he just realized I'm walking out with six years and he's looking at 20.
31:29So you deny the conversation?
31:31I deny everything that came out of his mouth.
31:33Want me to give you something real?
31:35Sean knew the kid wasn't his.
31:37He knew.
31:38I told him on our second date before I let him touch me.
31:40I said look, I'm carrying another guy's baby.
31:42I need a name.
31:43He said yes.
31:45He said the Moretti will would make him a millionaire if he had a kid.
31:48And he didn't care whose biology was on it.
31:50He paid for the riding lessons because he wanted Don Enzo to see his grandson on a horse.
31:55The whole thing was his idea.
31:57The prosecutor wrote it down.
31:59Lucas turned to me.
32:01Now she's lying.
32:03Both of them are lying.
32:04Both of them are admitting to enough on tape to put themselves away for life.
32:08I sipped my coffee.
32:10Lucas' hand was on the small of my back.
32:13How does it feel, Lucas?
32:15Watching the man you married throw the woman he ruined his life for under the bus while she throws him
32:19back.
32:19It feels like 10 years of waiting paid in full.
32:24They put them in the same room, one more time.
32:27Federal protocol.
32:28Sean was in cuffs now.
32:30Tiffany wasn't.
32:31You said I picked the school.
32:33You did pick the school, Sean.
32:35You said I planned to kill Enzo.
32:37That part was new for both of us.
32:39Apparently.
32:40You said the kid was mine on every birthday card for two years.
32:43I lied.
32:43You believed me.
32:44Whose problem is that exactly?
32:46He pulled against the cuffs.
32:47Tiffany, you told me you loved me.
32:50I told you a lot of things, baby.
32:51You'd believe anything if I said it with my hand in your pants.
32:54Tiffany.
32:54Derek's getting out in 18 months on cooperation.
32:57We're gonna take the kid back.
32:58We're gonna start over in Florida.
32:59I'm telling you this so you have something to think about for the next 20 years.
33:02You're getting six.
33:04I'm getting 20.
33:05That's not how this works.
33:07That's exactly how this works.
33:09I cried more on the stand than you did.
33:10I'm prettier.
33:11I have a kid in social services.
33:13The judge took one look and shaved 14 years off.
33:17You!
33:18He went for her again.
33:19The cuffs caught.
33:20The agent pinned him to the table.
33:22Get him out.
33:23We're done.
33:24They dragged him out.
33:26Tiffany sat back.
33:27Stretched her arms over her head.
33:29Lucas turned the intercom off.
33:3020 years for him.
33:32Six for her.
33:33With cooperation.
33:34Both filed.
33:35The judge signs on Friday.
33:37And the boy.
33:38Adopted.
33:39Park slope.
33:40Permanent.
33:41James calls the new father daddy already.
33:44Then we're done with both of them.
33:46We're done.
33:47He didn't move his hand from my back.
33:51The drive to Lucas place took eight minutes.
33:54He didn't talk.
33:55His right hand stayed on my thigh the whole ride.
33:58Fingers spread wide.
33:59Claiming.
34:00By the time he pulled into the underground garage, I was already done waiting.
34:03I unbuckled my seatbelt, climbed across the console into his lap before he killed the engine.
34:07His hands found my hips.
34:09Hard enough to bruise.
34:10Ava.
34:11Don't say my name like a question.
34:13You've been saying it like a question for ten years.
34:15How do you want me to say it?
34:17Like an answer.
34:20He said it like an answer.
34:21His mouth was on mine before the word was out.
34:24His hand fisted in my hair dragged my head back, mouth dropping to my throat.
34:27He bit.
34:28I gasped.
34:29He smiled against my skin.
34:31For ten years.
34:32Stop counting.
34:33Make me stop.
34:34I bit his lower lip.
34:36He growled and shoved my coat off my shoulders.
34:39The console was digging into my knee.
34:41I didn't care.
34:42His hand slid up my thigh, under the hem of my dress, possessive and unhasty.
34:46Upstairs.
34:47Now.
34:48Make me.
34:48He picked me up.
34:50Carried me out of the car.
34:51His mouth never left mine in the elevator.
34:54By the thirty-second floor, I had his shirt half open.
34:57His belt undone.
34:58His tie on the elevator floor.
35:00He had me pinned to the elevator wall with one thigh between mine.
35:03The doors opened.
35:05He didn't put me down.
35:06He carried me through the apartment door and kicked it shut with his heel.
35:11He didn't take me to the bedroom.
35:13He took me to the wall just inside the door.
35:16Ten years.
35:17Last time you say it.
35:19After tonight.
35:20No more counting.
35:25The next morning, Lucas' phone rang at six.
35:29Vain.
35:30Tiffany Cole tried to attack a corrections officer last night during transfer.
35:34Shower block.
35:35Broken cheekbone.
35:36Two molars out.
35:37Won't be talking for a few weeks.
35:39Self-inflicted?
35:40Looked like another inmate had a problem with her.
35:43Imagine that.
35:45Wanted you to know.
35:46Her cooperation deal is suspended pending the medical clearance.
35:49Thank you, detective.
35:53He hung up.
35:54Pulled me back against him.
36:00You did that.
36:03I might have made a phone call.
36:05To whom?
36:06Carlo has a cousin upstate.
36:08The cousin runs a women's facility.
36:10The cousin owed my father a favor.
36:12Ava.
36:13She told Sean she was going to take the kid back to Florida with Derek.
36:16She doesn't get to take anyone anywhere.
36:18Not after what she did to my father.
36:21How long have you been planning this?
36:23Since the moment she said wallet with a wedding ring.
36:26He kissed my shoulder.
36:30Marry me.
36:35Make it count.
36:37Yes, Ava.
36:43My father's study.
36:44Sunday afternoon.
36:46He was reading the financial section.
36:48He didn't look up when we walked in.
36:50Lucas.
36:50Don Enzo.
36:51You finally asked her.
36:53I did.
36:54She said yes.
36:55He folded the paper.
36:56Looked at us both.
36:57It took you 10 years.
36:59I was waiting for her to be ready.
37:01She has been ready for 9.
37:02I knew.
37:03Lucas knew.
37:04You knew.
37:05Sean was the only one who didn't.
37:06And he wasn't really in this family.
37:08So we are now a complete unit.
37:09Sit down.
37:10We sat.
37:11Tomorrow morning I am stepping down.
37:13The seat is yours, Ava.
37:14Lucas, you become general counsel of the holding company.
37:16The two of you run everything from now on.
37:18I am going to St. Lucia with your mother.
37:20And I am going to grow tomatoes.
37:22I have one condition.
37:23A grandchild.
37:24Within two years.
37:25Not because I want one.
37:26Because your mother does and I want to die in peace.
37:28Lucas didn't blink.
37:30Done.
37:30You signed a contract very fast there, Lucas.
37:32I have wanted to sign that contract since 2014, Don Enzo.
37:36My father laughed.
37:37Out loud.
37:38For the first time in a year.
37:40Then welcome to the family, son.
37:41Officially this time.
37:42He stood up.
37:44Walked around the desk.
37:45Hugged Lucas.
37:46Whispered something in his ear.
37:48Later I asked Lucas what he said.
37:50He said, if you ever lie to her the way Sean did, I have a Carlo too.
37:53What did you say back?
37:55I said, Don Enzo, you don't need a Carlo for me.
37:59Monday morning.
38:00The Moretti boardroom.
38:02Twelve men around a long table.
38:03None of them had ever been outranked by a woman.
38:06I walked in last.
38:07Lucas held the door for me.
38:08I sat at the head of the table.
38:10Three things.
38:11One.
38:12The Sean Callahan companies absorbed into the parent.
38:15Today.
38:16Anyone who had a side deal with him gets one chance to disclose it before noon.
38:21Afternoon, anything we find, we prosecute.
38:23Three men looked at their hands.
38:25Two.
38:26The shipping concession Giorgio has been holding since 1987.
38:30Reassigned.
38:31Giorgio.
38:32You are now overseeing our charitable foundation.
38:36Congratulations on your promotion.
38:38Giorgio's face did something complicated.
38:40Three.
38:41The next person at this table who tells me the family has always operated a certain way,
38:45I am personally writing them out of operating at this table at all.
38:48My father is in St. Lucia.
38:50He sends regards.
38:51He also sends Carlo's number.
38:53Use it as a reminder.
38:55Silence.
38:56Page one.
38:57Lucas, you have the floor.
38:59Lucas walked through the new structure in seven minutes.
39:03Nobody interrupted.
39:04After the meeting, Giorgio caught me at the door.
39:07Miss Moretta, I want to apologize.
39:08I underestimated.
39:09You did.
39:10It won't happen again.
39:11It won't, Giorgio.
39:12Because if it does, your foundation will be running out of a very small office in New Jersey.
39:17I walked past him.
39:19Lucas was waiting at the elevator.
39:20You enjoyed that.
39:22More than I should have.
39:24My phone rang.
39:25Dad.
39:29That was beautiful, sweetheart.
39:31Carlo cried.
39:32Don't bury Giorgio yet.
39:34I want to play golf with him in October.
39:36Fine.
39:37He gets until October.
39:40Three weeks later, Tuesday night, Lucas's penthouse, mine now too.
39:46I was in his shirt and nothing else, on the couch, reading the news on my phone.
39:51He came out of the shower with a towel around his hips.
39:54Look at this.
39:55I turned the phone toward him.
39:56A small headline.
39:57Page 9 of the post.
39:59Federal judge sentences Sean Callahan to 22 years on wire fraud, marriage forgingery, and
40:03a gragravate assault.
40:05He read it.
40:06Took the phone from my hand.
40:07Set it face down on the coffee table.
40:0922.
40:10They added the choke.
40:11And the perjury during cooperation.
40:13Tiffany?
40:14Eight years.
40:15Derek Marsh got transferred to a facility two miles from hers.
40:18He's already filed for a visit.
40:20You arranged that.
40:21Carlos Cousins' husband works at the Bureau of Prisons.
40:24He didn't answer.
40:26He was looking at me the way he looks at me when he's done talking.
40:30The towel dropped.
40:31He pulled me up off the couch.
40:34His hands found the hem of his shirt on me and dragged it up over my head.
40:39Threw it somewhere behind him.
40:42His mouth went straight to my throat.
40:44Lucas.
40:45Tuesday.
40:46Wednesday.
40:47Every other day this week.
40:50That's a heavy schedule, Counselor.
40:52You signed a contract for one.
40:54We're behind.
40:55He backed me toward the bedroom.
40:57His thumb dragging across my bottom lip.
40:59I pulled at the back of his neck.
41:01Bit his shoulder.
41:02He made a sound that wasn't a word.
41:04And lifted me clean off the floor.
41:06My legs locked around his waist.
41:08His mouth came down on mine.
41:09Hot and demanding.
41:12The bedroom door slammed shut behind us.
41:14The news on the phone could wait.
41:20Sean Callahan had 22 years.
41:23We had tonight.
41:27The wedding was small.
41:28My father's house.
41:3060 people.
41:31No press.
41:32My mother cried twice during the vows.
41:34My father didn't cry.
41:35But he held my hand for a full minute before walking me to Lucas.
41:39At the reception, Lucas pulled me onto the terrace.
41:42I want to show you something.
41:44Now?
41:45Now.
41:46He unbuttoned his shirt.
41:47Three buttons.
41:48Pushed it open.
41:49There was a scar across the lower right side of his abdomen.
41:51A long crescent.
41:52Old.
41:53What is this?
41:542022.
41:55The compound attack.
41:56The one that put your father in the hospital.
41:58Sean took the shrapnel from my father.
41:59That's the official record.
42:01Sean ran.
42:02I was the second man in the doorway.
42:04I took the shrapnel.
42:05Your father was unconscious by the time Sean came back.
42:08Sean pulled him out.
42:10Sean told the medics he'd shield the Don.
42:12I was being airlifted to Germany.
42:13By the time I was conscious enough to correct the record, three weeks later,
42:17your father had already named Sean a godson and you were already engaged.
42:20Lucas.
42:20I let him keep it.
42:22I let him have your father's gratitude and your hand
42:24because I thought if I told the truth, your father would force him out
42:29and you would resent me for the rest of your life.
42:32I touched the scar with one finger.
42:34He didn't flinch.
42:36You let me marry him?
42:38I let you marry him.
42:39You took my husband's wound?
42:41I took your father's wound.
42:43Your husband took my credit.
42:45I kissed him.
42:46Hard.
42:49Lucas.
42:50The next time you wait 10 years to tell me something, I am going to be very angry.
42:54There is nothing left to wait on, Ava.
42:5718 months later, Tribeca, 42nd floor, Lucas's office.
43:02Mine too now.
43:03I was 8 months pregnant and pacing because the baby wouldn't stop kicking the same rib.
43:07Lucas was at his desk on a call.
43:09He hung up.
43:10Sean filed a request to attend the birth.
43:12From prison.
43:13He wants to be present at the birth of any biological Morellier to atone for his actions.
43:17Direct quote.
43:17His new lawyer thought it might soften the parole board.
43:19Tell the lawyer no.
43:20If Shauna tries to see this baby, I will make sure his 22 years feels like 40.
43:24Already drafted.
43:25He stood.
43:25Came around the desk.
43:27Put his hand on my stomach.
43:28The intercom buzzed.
43:29My father on line one from St. Lucia.
43:31Sean Callahan was on the news last night down here.
43:34He gave a jailhouse interview.
43:35Said he was framed.
43:36Said you and Lucas planted the evidence.
43:38He's trying to start a podcast from inside.
43:40Let him talk.
43:40The more he talks, the longer he stays inside.
43:43Lucas already pulled the metrics.
43:44His podcast has 11 listeners.
43:46Three of them are us monitoring.
43:47Eleven listeners.
43:48Eleven.
43:49My father started laughing.
43:51He's broadcasting to a void.
43:53Let him.
43:54How is my granddaughter?
43:55Kicking the same rib for the third hour.
43:57She's a morati.
43:58Lucas, are you taking care of my daughter?
44:01Lucas leaned toward the phone, his hand still on my stomach.
44:04Yes, Don Enzo.
44:05Good.
44:06Six weeks.
44:07We'll be there.
44:08He hung up.
44:09He's never going to retire, is he?
44:12He retired 16 months ago.
44:14He's running a quarter of the Caribbean from a hammock.
44:19Eleanor Vane Moretti was born on a Thursday at 3 in the morning.
44:227 pounds, 4 ounces.
44:23Black hair.
44:24Lucas' eyes.
44:25My father flew in 12 hours later.
44:27He held her for an hour without putting her down.
44:29He didn't speak the whole time.
44:31When my mother finally took her, he sat down in the hospital chair and put his face in his
44:35hands for a long minute.
44:36Then he stood up, kissed me on the forehead, and went to find the nurse to demand better
44:39lighting.
44:40Lucas watched it from the doorway.
44:42Three days of stubble.
44:43No tie.
44:44Hadn't slept.
44:44Your father just held a baby and got emotional.
44:46I have never seen him emotional.
44:48He held me when I was born.
44:49He cried for 40 minutes.
44:51He told you that?
44:52My mother told me, right after he denied it.
44:54He sat next to my bed, took my hand.
44:57We did it.
44:58We did it.
44:59Are you happy?
45:01Yes.
45:03I love you.
45:04I know.
45:06He laughed.
45:07That's all I get?
45:08You get me.
45:09For the rest of your life.
45:11You get me.
45:12You get her.
45:12You get the next one, if my father has anything to say about it.
45:16The next one?
45:17Don't look so shocked.
45:18You signed a contract.
45:20I signed a contract for one.
45:21You signed it in front of my father.
45:24Read the small print.
45:27Three months later, the penthouse.
45:29Eleanor was asleep in the next room.
45:31Lucas came home late, dropped his briefcase, took off his tie before he even saw me.
45:35Tiffany Cole was attacked in the prison yard yesterday.
45:40How bad?
45:41Bad.
45:42She's in the medical wing.
45:44The face is going to scar, both cheeks.
45:47Whoever did it had a sharpened spoon and a problem.
45:52Carlo's cousin.
45:54Carlo's cousin's wife.
45:56Technically.
45:58Tiffany ran her mouth about James in the cafeteria.
46:01Said something the wife took personal.
46:03What did she say?
46:05That James was probably better off without a real mother.
46:08The wife had recently given up a child to adoption.
46:14Did Carlo know?
46:16Carlo knew.
46:17I poured Louis a whiskey.
46:19Did you authorize it?
46:21I didn't have to.
46:22I didn't authorize it.
46:23I also didn't stop it.
46:25Good answer.
46:27He drank the whiskey and won.
46:29Set the glass down.
46:31Pulled me against him.
46:33How was your day?
46:35Eleanor said her first word.
46:37What was it?
46:38Dada.
46:39He stopped breathing for a second.
46:42Lucas Vane is officially in second place to a man who can't even hold his own head up yet.
46:47I will live with this defeat.
46:50Six months later.
46:51Sean's parole hearing.
46:53He didn't get parole.
46:54The board sat through 40 minutes of his attempts to re-litigate the case.
46:58His claims that he'd been framed.
47:00His statement that his estranged wife had stolen his child and his fortune.
47:04Then the chair of the board, a woman who'd done 30 years on the federal bench, leaned forward.
47:09Mr. Callahan, you have never been married.
47:11You have no biological child.
47:13You have no fortune of your own to be stolen.
47:15Your record indicates you spent $4 million of your godfather's money raising a child who was not yours.
47:20And you have failed to take responsibility for that in any of the documents in front of me.
47:23Parole denied.
47:25We'll see you in three years.
47:26He didn't speak.
47:27The rest of the hearing.
47:32Lucas had the transcript on my desk by lunch.
47:38I sent a copy to my father in St. Lucia.
47:42He called to an it's later.
47:44Did you know that judge?
47:46No.
47:47I want to send her a fruit basket.
47:49You can't send a federal judge a fruit basket.
47:51I can send her one from anonymous advisor in St. Lucia.
47:54Watch me.
47:55It's already on its way, isn't it?
47:56It's already on its way, sweetheart.
48:00Two years after the wedding.
48:29My grandfather bought it in 1958.
48:32I bought it back from the Costa family in 2002.
48:34It's been in trust 30 years.
48:36It's yours now.
48:36For Eleanor.
48:37For her sister.
48:38For all of them.
48:39This is too much.
48:41I almost died because a man I called my godson watched me on a screen and went back to dinner.
48:46I will not make that mistake twice.
48:49This land is yours because you earned it.
48:56I hugged him.
49:00Three years after the wedding.
49:02The Moretti boardroom.
49:04Quarterly meeting.
49:05I was at the head of the table.
49:07Lucas at my right.
49:0912 men around us.
49:11I went through the agenda in 55 minutes.
49:14Closed the folder.
49:16One last item.
49:18Personal.
49:19Effective today.
49:21Lucas Vane is being promoted to co-CEO of the Moretti Holding Company.
49:25He has been operating in this role for 18 months.
49:31We are making it official because we are signing the Tuscany acquisition next quarter.
49:36Any questions?
49:38There were no questions.
49:39Outside in the hallway.
49:41Lucas pinned me into the alcove by the elevator.
49:44One hand on my hip.
49:46Co-CEO.
49:47I had to do something with you.
49:48You wouldn't stop coming to my meetings.
49:50They're our meetings.
49:51They are now.
49:53Officially.
49:53Eleanor wants a sister.
49:55Eleanor wants a horse.
49:56She'll settle for a sister if we put a saddle on her.
49:59He kissed me.
50:01Deep.
50:01Slow.
50:02The elevator dinged behind us.
50:04We ignored it.
50:07Five years after the blizzard.
50:09Five years almost to the day.
50:11We were at the penthouse.
50:12Eleanor was four.
50:14Her sister was one.
50:15My parents were down for the weekend.
50:17Lucas was in the kitchen.
50:19The TV was on low.
50:20A local news broadcast.
50:22Sean Callahan, formerly known for his role in the Moretti family fraud scandal,
50:26was found dead in his cell at the federal facility upstate yesterday morning.
50:30Officials are describing it as a suicide.
50:33He had been denied parole for the second time three weeks ago.
50:36He leaves behind no immediate family.
50:39My mother muted the TV without saying anything.
50:42My father didn't look up from his crossword.
50:45Lucas came in from the kitchen with two glasses of red.
50:48He handed me one.
50:50You okay?
50:51I'm fine.
50:55You don't have to be.
50:57I am.
50:59I sipped the wine, looked at the muted screen.
51:03The photo they were running was old.
51:05I felt nothing.
51:06Not anger.
51:07Not pity.
51:09Just nothing.
51:10Eleanor totted in from the bedroom in her pajamas.
51:13Climbed onto my lap.
51:17Mama, tell a story.
51:20Once upon a time there was a girl, and her father, and a man who loved her very much, and
51:27waited a long time.
51:28Then what?
51:30Then they all lived in this apartment with two babies and a grandfather who plays cards too loud.
51:36My father didn't look up from the crossword.
51:41I heard that.
51:43You were meant to.
51:44Lucas raised his glass to mine.
51:46I raised mine back.
51:47The news anchor moved on to the weather.
51:49The screen showed Sean's photo for one more second.
51:52Then it was gone.
51:53It stayed gone.
51:54The news anchor moved on to the weather.
51:55The news anchor moved on to the weather.
51:58The news anchor moved on to the weather.
51:59The news anchor moved on to the weather.
51:59The news anchor moved on to the weather.
52:00The news anchor moved on to the weather.
52:00The news anchor moved on to the weather.
52:00You
Comments