The Lake Contract

In the vein of the 1990s blockbuster War of the Roses comes this black comedy from independent author Carla J. Harrod.This fictionalized true story revolves around the relationship of a couple planning to marry who end up in a bitter feud over a prenuptial agreement with a villa at Lake Como, Italy becoming the critical point shaping the deal. Victor Paxton, the uber rich older man, lives in Chicago and Palm Beach where he meets the attractive younger Sydney Wyles who works in a high-end Palm Beach art gallery owned by a longtime friend of his from Chicago, the eccentric James Whitmore. As seen in flashbacks through the eyes of a now widowed Sydney several years after Victor’s tragic demise on the lake, she recounts her turbulent story at the villa in Lake Como to her lifelong Italian friend, Gabriella from the early stages of their whirlwind romance in tony Palm Beach through the adversarial challenges of coming to terms with the prenup leading to the animosity and mistrust in their marriage that shapes the tragic ending. Was the demise of the charming but controlling Victor an accident on the lake or intentional and what will Gabriella decide to do.