Chapter 4 - A Father's Wrath
"Emily, tell him to stop!" Margaret shrieked, rushing down the marble steps. "You ungrateful little witch! We took you in! We clothed you! Daniel gave you a name! You can’t let your father ruin our family over a domestic disagreement!"
I stared at the woman who had spent three years degrading my existence, telling me daily that I was worthless without her son.
"You didn't take me in, Margaret," I said, my voice steady, stripped of all the fear that had paralyzed me for years. "I paid the down payment on this house with money from my personal savings. The catering company you booked canceled because you refused to pay their invoice. You made me cook sixty courses to cover up your own cheapness. And when your son assaulted me, you cheered him on."
Margaret opened her mouth to screech another insult, but my father raised a single finger.
The security guards stepped forward, forming an impenetrable wall of broad shoulders and earpieces that forced Margaret back onto the steps.
My father turned to his personal aide, a sharp-eyed man named Vance who stood by the middle SUV with an open tablet. "Vance."
"Ready, sir."
"Whitmore Development Group has an active seventy-five-million-dollar syndicated loan with Apex Capital, correct?"
Daniel's head snapped up. His eyes widened in sheer terror. Apex Capital was the sole lifeline keeping his downtown skyscraper project alive. "No... no, no, no, you can't..."
"Apex Capital is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carter Global," Vance confirmed clearly, his voice carrying over the silent lawn. "Mr. Carter holds sole discretion over default clauses under section twelve—moral turpitude and reputational risk."
"Call the executive board," my father commanded, his voice cold and devoid of mercy. "Declare the loan in immediate default. Call in the full seventy-five million balance due by eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
"It's done, sir," Vance said, his fingers dancing across the screen.
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Daniel let out a gut-wrenching howl. "Alexander, please! That will bankrupt us! Every subcontractor will walk off the site tomorrow! The bank will seize everything!"
"Bankrupting you is only the appetizer, Daniel," my father whispered. "I haven't even begun to ruin you."
