Chapter 6 - Masks Slipping in the Snow
While I was enjoying the quiet warmth of my home, a full-blown civil war was erupting in the snow-covered courtyard of the Whispering Pines Resort.
Daniel stood by the luggage cart, his face pale and clammy despite the biting cold. Patricia was sobbing hysterically, sitting on top of an oversized leather suitcase, while Robert paced back and forth, swearing under his breath and glaring at his son with undisguised contempt.
""Well?"" Patricia wailed, looking up at Daniel with mascara-streaked eyes. ""Did she fix it? Are we going back inside?""
""No,"" Daniel croaked, his hands shaking so violently he almost dropped his phone into a snowbank. ""She... she knows everything. She froze the joint accounts. She suspended my executive access.""
""She knows about what?"" Robert barked, storming over and grabbing Daniel by the collar of his designer ski jacket. ""What does she know, Daniel? What did you do?""
""I... I had to move some money around,"" Daniel stammered, his eyes darting frantically toward Vanessa, who was standing a few yards away, frantically typing on her phone. ""For marketing. For business.""
Vanessa suddenly stopped typing and looked up, her expression completely transformed. The sweet, attentive, admiring woman who had clung to Daniel’s arm on the airplane had vanished. In her place stood a cold, calculating woman whose eyes were sharp as ice.
""Daniel,"" Vanessa snapped, her voice cutting through the crisp mountain air like a whip. ""My luxury rental car booking just got canceled. The car company says the Northstar corporate account flagged the reservation as unauthorized. And my corporate card won't even buy a bottle of water at the vending machine.""
""Vanessa, babe, calm down,"" Daniel pleaded, holding his hands up defensively. ""Claire had a psychotic break. She's just being vindictive because she's jealous. As soon as we get back to New York, my lawyers will force her to release the funds. She’s just trying to scare me.""
""Lawyers?"" Vanessa sneered, taking two aggressive steps toward him. ""Did you lie to me? You told me Northstar was your company! You told me you were the managing partner and that your wife was just a passive investor who stayed out of the business!""
Patricia gasped, rising from her suitcase. ""How dare you speak to my son that way, you little opportunist! He brought you on this luxury trip out of the goodness of his heart!""
""Goodness of his heart?"" Vanessa laughed bitterly, glaring at Patricia with venomous disgust. ""Your son told me he was worth twenty million dollars! He promised me a luxury chalet, private ski lessons, and a VP promotion in the spring! Now I’m standing in a snowstorm with frozen toes because he’s nothing but an employee living off his wife’s inheritance!""
""Shut your mouth!"" Robert shouted, pointing a trembling finger at Vanessa. ""You had no problem drinking our champagne on the flight!""
""Your champagne?"" Vanessa yelled back, drawing gasps from several affluent families walking past the entrance. ""That champagne was billed to Claire’s corporate account! Everything was billed to Claire! He doesn't have a dime! He maxed out his pathetic personal card on four scrambled eggs and some caviar this morning!""
Daniel looked between his parents and his mistress, feeling the entire architecture of his fabricated life collapse beneath his feet. ""Vanessa, stop it! We can get a motel in town—""
""A motel?"" Vanessa mocked, scoffing loudly. ""I don't stay in motels, Daniel. And I certainly don't stay with broke, unemployed losers who get outsmarted by their own wives.""
She wheeled her two Louis Vuitton bags away from the cart, signaling furiously to a passing town taxi.
""Vanessa, wait!"" Daniel shouted, running after her and slipping slightly on a patch of black ice. ""Where are you going?""
""I'm going to the airport to catch the first flight back to New York,"" she snapped, loading her bags into the trunk of the cab. ""And when I get back, I’m clearing out that penthouse before your wife’s security guards change the locks.""
""You can't take that cab!"" Daniel yelled desperately, grabbing the door handle. ""That's my last twenty dollars in cash!""
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Vanessa looked at him through the rolled-down window, her face contorted in sheer disgust. ""Get your hands off the car, Daniel. Don't make this into one of your unnecessary dramas.""
With a spray of dirty slush, the taxi pulled away from the curb, leaving Daniel standing in the freezing cold, utterly abandoned by the woman he had traded his marriage for.
