Chapter 8 - The Clearing of the Cliffs
By two o'clock in the afternoon, the marine layer had burned away, leaving the Big Sur coastline raw, brilliant, and terrifying under a hard, crystalline blue sky.
The wind had picked up from the northwest, blowing forty knots through the canyons, whipping the sea into long, white ribbons of foam that shattered against the granite bases of the resort with the sound of distant artillery.
Evelyn stood on the private helipad on the north bluff, wearing her heavy wool overcoat, her hands deep in her pockets.
Behind her, the twin turbines of an AgustaWestland AW139 were idling with a high, whistling whine that flattened the wild sage and ice plant along the edge of the tarmac.
Thomas Ellery walked toward her from the terminal path, holding a single manila envelope.
"The family has departed, Miss Hart," Ellery said, shouting slightly above the turbine wash.
"Did they take the shuttle?"
"Mr. Whitmore attempted to secure a private driver from the resort fleet," Ellery said, his face completely expressionless. "I informed him that our commercial transport insurance does not extend to non-registered guests whose credit profiles have been flagged by the state registry. They took two yellow cabs from Monterey."
"And Grant?"
"He remained in the lower parking lot for forty minutes, attempting to place calls to the Lone Star representatives in Dallas," Ellery said. "His cellular service was suspended at one-fifteen. He left with his sister in the second cab."
Evelyn took the manila envelope from Ellery's hand.
Inside was a single legal instrument, drafted eighty minutes ago by the senior partners of Sullivan & Cromwell in San Francisco:
IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF MONTEREY.
PETITION FOR DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE WITHOUT PROPERTY ADJUSTMENT.
PETITIONER: EVELYN VANCE HART.
RESPONDENT: GRANT DOUGLAS WHITMORE.
Attached to the rear of the petition was a second document—a certified copy of the prenuptial agreement Grant had insisted Evelyn sign five years ago in a coffee shop in San Jose.
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Grant had drafted it himself, using an online template, to protect his "future intellectual property and executive dividends" from any claim by a wife who worked for a modest family trust.
The agreement stated, in language that had been audited by three separate contract specialists:
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