The Reading of the Will
The Restitution Clause

The Fight

August 25, 2026 · Part 7 of 10 · 2 min

Weston found her in the parking lot outside his mother's house, sitting on the curb in the cold with her coat unbuttoned, the misdirected text still open on her phone.

"Isla —"

"You knew," she said. "Three years, and you knew."

He crouched in front of her instead of arguing. "I found out eight months ago. Not three years — eight months. My mother told me after we were already engaged, when it was too late to matter, or that's what I told myself."

"Too late to matter." She laughed, short and humorless. "Weston, our entire relationship started because your mother paid for a conference room."

"Our relationship started because I couldn't stop looking at you across a dinner table," Weston said. "The room, the seating, the grant — I didn't put myself in that chair. I chose to talk to you. I chose every day after that. That part was never her decision."

"You still should have told me."

"I know." His voice cracked on it. "I was a coward. I told myself it didn't change anything, and then I told myself it was too close to the wedding to blow it up, and every excuse got worse than the last one, and I hate myself for it, Isla, I do."

She wanted to believe him. That was the terrifying part — some stubborn piece of her still did.

"There's something else," Weston said, and the dread in his voice was new, sharper than guilt. "My father's will. There's a clause in it I only found out about when the estate lawyers reviewed it for the wedding trust paperwork last month."

"What kind of clause?"

"It's tied to your grandfather's name specifically. Roland drafted it before he retired." Weston swallowed. "If a Halvorsen marries a descendant of Anselm Marchetti, a percentage of the company reverts to the Marchetti family automatically. It's dated the year my father died."

Isla felt the ground tilt under the curb she was sitting on.

"You mean," she said slowly, "our wedding is worth money. To my family. Written into a legal document before either of us was even born."

Weston didn't answer. He didn't have to.

Continue the story Part 8: The Clause →

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