Chapter 15 - SERENA’S DIVORCE
The divorce finalized eleven months after the dinner.
No courtroom screaming.
Most issues settled.
Marital residence sold.
Net equity divided with agreed adjustment for consulting expenses and certain transfers Bastian made without full disclosure.
Serena retained her separate trust interests.
Bastian retained most of his Coletti Freight equity.
Retirement accounts divided appropriately.
No Montesi trust asset awarded to him because it was not his marital property except distributions that had actually been commingled and were accounted for.
Precise.
Then parenting.
Joint legal decision-making on Helena’s ordinary child matters? Given conflict, maybe parallel with Serena primary physical. Let's set Serena primary physical custody, Bastian scheduled parenting time expanding, shared access to medical/school information, major decisions subject to agreement/mediation. No trust authority.
The decree explicitly stated:
Parental rights concerning Helena do not convey authority over any trust in which the child is beneficiary.
Good.
Bastian accepted.
Then Faye’s support order.
Separate.
No comparison between children.
Bastian’s obligations reflected income and custody time.
Bianca complained privately that he was “being bled by women.”
Bastian told her to stop.
That was new.
Then Faye and Serena had one difficult meeting.
No lawyers this time.
Coffee.
Faye apologized again for attending the dinner.
Serena said:
“I don’t forgive that part yet.”
Faye nodded.
Then Serena said:
“But I don’t want our children raised as enemies because their father lied.”
Good.
Helena and Miles were half-siblings.
They might know each other.
That decision belonged to parents, not trusts.
Eventually supervised family playdates began with Bastian present.
No Bianca initially.
Two babies.
One floor.
No inheritance discussion.
Perfect.
Then Serena returned to work.
She was a commercial architect.
Not Montesi company.
She had taken maternity leave.
She resumed gradually.
No need become family CEO to prove woman power.
Then Sterling offered her beneficiary education sessions.
She attended.
Asked hard questions.
Learned more about her own assets than I knew at her age.
Good.
Then she asked to remove me from one consultation role where my corporate interests created conflict.
I felt offended for seven seconds.
Then proud.
“Do it.”
Professional fiduciary appointed.
Helena’s design working.
Then the old 1989 Charter.
Could we destroy it?
No.
Historical record.
We marked every digital and physical copy:
SUPERSEDED — NOT CURRENT GOVERNANCE.
Large red stamp.
Not subtle.
Harold Venn laughed.
“Helena would approve.”
Yes.
Then Bianca.
She petitioned for therapeutic contact with Serena? Not legally. Could send apology.
Her first letter:
I am sorry the dinner became physical.
Rejected by Serena emotionally.
Second:
I shoved you from a chair while you were eight months pregnant because I believed Faye’s son mattered more to the family’s future than your daughter. That was wrong.
Better.
Then:
I also repeated inheritance claims I did not understand because they gave me status.
There.
No request for forgiveness.
Serena read.
Stored.
No reply.
Then one day Helena, now almost one, took her first steps beside the dining table where Serena had once fallen.
Not same formal hall maybe family lunch.
She walked toward the ornate chair.
Everyone froze for no rational reason.
Then she slapped both hands on the seat and laughed.
Serena looked at me.
“Do not make it symbolic.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
I was.
We moved the chair into storage the next week.
Not because cursed.
Because it was uncomfortable.
May you like
That was our official reason.
We all knew better.
