Chapter 6 - Freezing the Wells
Arthur Pendelton left our driveway with his tail between his legs, his pristine leather briefcase tucked under his arm like a shield. But the battle was far from over.
Twenty minutes later, Evander was sitting at his home office desk, surrounded by bank statements, mortgage deeds, and corporate filings. The light from his laptop screen reflected in his tired eyes.
"What are you doing?" I asked, placing a fresh cup of tea beside his keyboard.
"Something I should have done three years ago," Evander said. His voice was steady, stripped of the hesitation that had plagued him for decades. "My father left a unified estate when he died, but Delphine blew through her half within forty-eight months on bad real estate ventures and Serafina’s failed fashion lines."
"And you stepped in."
"I took over the primary mortgage on Delphine’s manor," Evander admitted, clicking through a banking portal. "I also co-signed Serafina’s luxury lease downtown, pay the insurance on both their German SUVs, and provide an unrestricted corporate credit card under my design firm for 'family emergencies.'"
I raised an eyebrow. "And how much does that family emergency card run per month?"
"Last month? Fourteen thousand dollars." Evander turned the laptop screen toward me. "Delphine used it yesterday morning to pay a five-thousand-dollar deposit to a celebrity PR consultant."
"To manage the fallout of her daughter’s arrest before it even happened?"
"No," Evander said bitterly. "To draft a press release smearing you. She planned this whole confrontation, Maya. Serafina didn't just snap because of the mushroom soup. They wanted a public scene. Delphine has been trying to force a wedge between us because my firm is about to close a major acquisition with a European firm. If the deal goes through, my assets triple. But under my father’s trust, if I get divorced before the age of thirty-five without children, thirty percent of my liquid capital reverts back to Delphine’s control to 'protect family lineage.'"
The pieces snapped into place like a tight guillotine choke.
"They wanted me to hit her," I realized aloud. "They wanted me to lose my temper, beat Serafina into a hospital bed, get arrested for felony assault, and leave you with no choice but to divorce a convicted felon to save your company."
"Exactly," Evander whispered. "They underestimated you. They thought you were just an aggressive girl from a working-class gym who couldn't control her temper."
"So what's the play?" I asked.
Evander smiled, a dark, satisfying expression I had never seen on him before. He dragged the mouse across the screen and clicked a bright red button labeled *Terminate Authorization*.
May you like
"The play is absolute zero," Evander said. "I just canceled the corporate card. I just instructed my mortgage servicer to remove autopay on Delphine’s estate. And I notified the dealership that Serafina’s lease payments will not be renewed on December first."
He shut the laptop lid with a crisp snap. "Let's see how much Arthur Pendelton likes working pro bono."
