Chapter 6 - The Freezing Dawn
At 6:15 AM, the front gates buzzed loudly as a procession of black town cars pulled into the driveway.
Uncle Howard stormed through the front door without knocking, flanked by two corporate defense attorneys carrying bulky litigation briefs. His face was flushed crimson with rage, his expensive cashmere overcoat speckled with melted snow.
"Where is she, Grant?" Howard bellowed, slamming his leather briefcase onto the mahogany dining table.
"Where is that accountant wife of yours?"
Grant didn't move from the floor, his back resting against the base of the dining chair.
"She's gone, Howard. She took Ethan and left hours ago."
"Then call her! Beg her! Offer her fifty percent of the company!"
"She doesn't want fifty percent," Grant said, his voice hollow and cracked. "She already owns one hundred percent of the terminal dirt. We were just leasing it from her family trust."
The lead attorney adjusted his glasses and opened a folder.
"Mr. Bennett, the maritime union just issued a stop-work order across all four harbor terminals. They cite a clause in their labor agreement that prevents longshoremen from operating on contested private land."
"We're losing two hundred thousand dollars an hour while those cargo vessels sit idle in the bay," Howard snarled, pointing an accusatory finger at Grant.
"And Brooke? She’s already talking to federal investigators. She called me thirty minutes ago asking for immunity in exchange for testifying about your offshore invoicing!"
Grant looked up slowly, a sickening wave of nausea washing through his stomach.
"Brooke went to the feds?"
"She’s twenty-nine and terrified of prison, you idiot!" Howard yelled. "She thought you were an untouchable titan. The second the accounts froze, she flipped on you to save her own skin!"
Grant closed his eyes as the humiliation settled deep into his bones.
He had risked his marriage, his unborn child, and his six-year-old son for a woman who abandoned him before sunrise. Claire had known Brooke's true character better than he ever did.
May you like
Outside, the first rays of the Christmas morning sun broke through the gray snowclouds, illuminating the frozen garden.
Grant walked slowly out onto the terrace, looking out over the expansive lawn where Ethan should have been building snowmen. The silence of the morning was deafening, broken only by the distant wail of harbor sirens down by the icy coastline.
