Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

Chloe’s apartment was permanently secured against fraudulent transfers, and all contested documents were declared null and void by a judge.

When Samuel finally called her seven months after the wedding to deliver the ultimate news, Chloe was standing in Walter’s kitchen helping him prepare lunch.

“What did the lawyer say?” Walter asked, looking up from the table.

Chloe hung up the phone with shaking hands.

“He said that the case is officially closed and that I can finally live my life in peace,” Chloe whispered, tears welling in her eyes.

Walter gave a single, satisfied nod.