Chapter 9 - The Reckoning
"You idiot!" Gordon roared, lunging across the table to grab Renata's wrist in a frantic attempt to silence her.
Before he could lay a hand on her, the federal marshals moved in, twisting Gordon’s arms behind his back with two deafening clicks of steel handcuffs.
"Gordon Thorne, you are under arrest for grand larceny, interstate wire fraud, extortion, and witness intimidation," the lead marshal declared.
"Alister, wait! Dad, please!" Gordon screamed, thrashing against the officers as his expensive suit was pinned against the sideboard.
"I did it for the family! Alister was going to marry an outsider! He was going to dilute our pedigree!"
My father Harold stood up slowly, leaning heavily on the table with both hands as decades of patriarchal pride turned to dust.
"You threatened a pregnant woman with death, Gordon," Harold said, his voice shaking with profound disgust.
"You stole fifty million dollars from your own blood, let your niece starve in an unheated room, and drove the mother of my grandchild into an early grave."
"You are no longer a vice president of this company, you are no longer an heir to my estate, and you are no longer my son."
The marshals dragged Gordon down the grand hallway, his desperate cries for mercy fading as the heavy front doors slammed shut.
Renata collapsed to the floor in tears, clutching her knees as two female federal agents stepped forward to place her under arrest as an accessory.
My mother Eleanor stood up, her face streaked with tears of devastating guilt.
"Alister... where is Daisy? We have to bring her here... we have to make this right."
I looked at my mother, feeling a profound ache that no amount of justice or wealth could ever heal.
May you like
"Daisy passed away two hours ago in Scranton, Mom," I said softly, the words catching in my throat.
"She died knowing that our daughter was safe."
