Chapter 5 - Natalie’s Arrival
By Friday morning—barely sixteen hours after the disastrous dinner—Daniel’s pristine modern farmhouse was descending into chaos.
I didn't need to be there to see it. Melissa, Daniel’s sister, called me from her car. Unlike her mother, Melissa had always possessed a shred of conscience.
"Claire?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Are you okay?"
"I’m having room service eggs Benedict, Melissa. How’s the house?"
Melissa let out a ragged breath. "It’s a war zone. Mom threw a fit because Daniel couldn't figure out how to program the dishwasher, and the entire kitchen smells like burnt sugar because he tried to reheat the pecan pie in the convection oven with the plastic lid on."
"Did they eat?"
"We ordered Chinese food at nine o'clock last night," Melissa confessed quietly. "Mom wouldn't stop crying about how 'disrespectful' you were. But Claire... Natalie came over this morning."
I paused, setting my coffee cup down. "Did she?"
"Daniel called her in an absolute panic because the logistics portal froze. She showed up wearing six-inch heels and a cashmere coat, acting like she was stepping in to save the day." Melissa paused, lowering her voice further. "She tried to access the corporate payroll server from Daniel’s laptop. The entire company intranet crashed five minutes later. Daniel started screaming at her. Natalie started crying and locked herself in your guest bathroom. Mom told Natalie she was useless, and now Natalie is threatening to sue the company for workplace harassment."
A cool, satisfying wave of vindication washed over me.
"Natalie is a social media marketer, Melissa. She was hired to curate Daniel’s LinkedIn image and take photos at charity galas. She doesn't know the difference between an air-waybill and a bill of lading."
"Daniel is losing his mind, Claire. The bank called his personal cell an hour ago. Something about a credit guarantee being revoked? He threw his coffee mug against the backsplash. He’s telling Mom that you’re committing corporate sabotage."
"It’s not sabotage to stop paying the bills of a man who threw me out of my own home," I said evenly. "Tell your brother he wanted to be independent. Now he gets to find out what that costs."
I hung up before Melissa could plead further.
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Black Friday was supposed to be the busiest shipping day of the fourth quarter for Vance Logistics. Retail clients were waiting on emergency freight shifts across three time zones.
Without my signature on the emergency collateral release, not a single truck was going to leave the depot.
