Chapter 6 - The Shattered Façade
Daniel turned to his family, searching desperately for an ally among the people he had commanded for years.
"Grant! Call Uncle Robert! Call the governor's office!" Daniel pleaded, his voice cracking like brittle glass.
Grant didn't move. He kept his eyes locked on his spilled Scotch, refusing to look at his brother.
"Grant!"
"I'm not going to jail for your embezzlement, Daniel," Grant whispered coldly. "You signed those checks. You bought her jewelry with our payroll taxes."
Daniel turned toward Melissa. "Melissa, tell her! Tell her this is insane!"
Melissa looked at Evelyn, then at Vanessa’s expensive dress, and slowly shook her head. "You brought this into her dining room, Daniel. You wanted her to beg. You did this to yourself."
Vanessa backed away from the table toward the foyer, her designer purse clutched tightly against her stomach. "I’m calling an Uber."
"Vanessa, wait!" Daniel lunged after her, grabbing her wrist near the grand staircase. "We have the Swiss accounts! We can fight this!"
"What Swiss accounts, Daniel?" Evelyn’s voice drifted out from the dining room, clear and razor-sharp. "The UBS reserves you opened in Zurich? Those were pledged as secondary collateral under the 2018 liquidity pledge. My forensic team seized them at noon today."
Vanessa yanked her wrist free from Daniel’s grasp with disgust.
"You're broke," Vanessa said, her voice stripped of every drop of affection. "You lied to me. You told me you owned the whole city."
"Vanessa, I love you! Our child—"
"I’m going to my mother’s house," Vanessa snapped, turning on her designer heels and walking straight out through the grand double doors into the rain, leaving Daniel standing alone on the marble threshold.
The sound of the heavy front door slamming shut echoed through the vast mansion like a funeral bell.
Daniel fell to his knees on the cold marble floor, his tailored jacket wrinkling against his frame, breathing in jagged, broken gasps.
May you like
Evelyn walked out of the dining room, followed by the two state troopers and her attorney. She stopped five feet from where her husband knelt in ruins.
"Arthur’s chair stays in this dining room," Evelyn said, looking down at him without a single drop of hatred or triumph. "You never deserved to sit in it."
