Chapter 6 - The Morning Ambush at the Estate
By nine o'clock that morning, the rain had turned into a torrential downpour battering the tall windows of the Manhattan estate.
Inside the grand dining hall, my father Harold sat at the head of the long mahogany table with his trust attorneys.
My mother Eleanor was seated to his left, while Gordon and Renata sat across, looking triumphant and poised.
Annie was not at the table.
Sitting in her place on the floor near the doorway was her small cardboard suitcase, packed and taped shut.
Renata was sipping black coffee, gesturing toward two uniformed private security guards standing near the grand staircase.
"Harold, we must be decisive," Renata was saying, her tone dripping with rehearsed sorrow.
"Child protective services has been dispatched. It is completely inappropriate to keep an unidentified child in this home."
"Where is Alister?" my father asked, his heavy brows drawn together in troubled contemplation.
"Alister is emotionally compromised," Gordon answered smoothly, adjusting his gold cufflinks.
"He left before dawn because he couldn't face the reality of Daisy’s fraud. We need to sign the board restructuring papers now."
The massive oak double doors swung open with a resounding boom that echoed like thunder through the vaulted ceiling.
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I walked into the dining hall, my coat soaked with rain, my eyes burning with a chilling, predatory stillness.
Behind me walked Dr. Robert Sterling, carrying a sealed red envelope, followed by Marcus Kane and four armed federal marshals.
