Chapter 3 - The Web of Deceit Unravels
Three days later, I was discharged from the hospital and brought back to the high-rise penthouse condo that Wyatt owned overlooking the glittering skyline of downtown Columbus. A stark white surgical bandage covered the left side of my face, running from my temple down across my cheekbone, holding together the dozens of internal and external stitches required to reconstruct my shattered orbital bone.
Every time I looked in the mirror, the raw, angry red line served as a permanent reminder of the moment my own family tried to erase me. But I didn't cry. Instead, I sat at the glass dining table with Wyatt, surrounded by stacks of financial audits, bank records, and legal briefs that Marcus Vance had spent the last seventy-two hours compiling.
“The police executed the search warrant on my parents' house yesterday afternoon,” I said, my voice slightly muffled by the swelling. “Did they find the brick?”
Wyatt gently placed a warm mug of chamomile tea in front of me, his eyes full of a fierce, protective tenderness. “They did, Sadie. It was sitting right where your father tossed it into the tall grass, but forensics also found traces of your blood and skin tissue on the corner of the porch step where your head bounced. And more importantly, they found the ledger in your father’s home office safe.”
I looked up, gripping the edge of the table. “What ledger?”
“The ledger documenting every single dollar they embezzled from your grandfather’s manufacturing company before he passed away,” Wyatt explained, sitting down beside me and taking my hand. “For years, your parents made you feel like you were the outcast, the ‘selfish’ one, because you didn't bow down to their demands. They used your inheritance to fund Melanie’s lavish lifestyle, her luxury cars, her designer clothes, and her endless attempts to break us apart. They thought that if they married Melanie off to me, they would legally absorb my entire construction portfolio into their family conglomerate.”
The sheer audacity of their plan made my stomach churn. From the moment Wyatt sold his company for twenty million dollars, my family hadn't seen me as a daughter or a sister—they had seen me as a winning lottery ticket that had accidentally fallen into the wrong hands. When I refused to step aside and let Melanie take my place at the altar, they decided to remove me permanently.
“Marcus called a few minutes ago,” Wyatt continued, his phone buzzing on the table with an incoming secure notification. “The prosecutor’s office officially upgraded the charges against your father and mother. It’s no longer just aggravated assault and destruction of property. It’s felony conspiracy to commit bodily harm, extortion, and wire fraud.”
“What about Melanie?” I asked quietly.
“Melanie tried to flee the state last night,” Wyatt said with a grim smile. “She packed four designer suitcases and attempted to board a private flight to Miami using one of your father’s offshore accounts. The sheriff’s deputies intercepted her at Port Columbus International Airport before the jet even taxied down the runway. She’s currently sitting in a holding cell at the county jail.”
My phone chimed as well. It was an email from Marcus Vance containing a scanned copy of the police booking photos.
I looked at the screen. My mother, Brenda, impeccably dressed in her high-end designer blouse, was staring blankly into the camera lens with her hair unstyled, looking ancient, defeated, and utterly stripped of her social armor. Beside her was my father, his suit jacket wrinkled, his arrogant posture completely collapsed. And Melanie—her fresh manicure chipped, her expensive makeup smeared with actual tears—looked like a frightened child who had finally realized that her manipulation tactics had hit a brick wall.
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“They thought they were untouchable,” I whispered, staring at the glowing screen. “They honestly believed that because they shared DNA with me, they could destroy my face, steal my inheritance, and rewrite my life without any consequences.”
“They were wrong,” Wyatt said firmly, reaching out to cup my uninjured cheek with his warm palm. “They picked the wrong target, Sadie. And now, everything they built on lies and violence is going to crumble right down to the dust.”
