Chapter 5 - Confronting the Vipers
The county jail visitations room was cold, stark, and smelled of cheap floor wax and old iron.
Walter Vance sat on the opposite side of the thick glass partition, wearing an orange jumpsuit. His hair was unkempt, his face hollow, and the arrogant swagger that had defined him for fifty years was completely shattered. Next to him sat Patricia, weeping hysterically into a tissue, her hands shaking.
Jake sat down on his side of the glass. He picked up the intercom phone.
Walter hesitated, then slowly lifted his receiver.
“Jake...” Walter’s voice was hoarse, begging. “Jake, you have to get us out of here! The lawyers say we’re looking at federal prison! Ten to fifteen years! Patricia can’t survive in a place like this! Logan is in the young offenders wing crying every night! You have to drop the charges!”
Jake looked at his father with complete detachment. “I didn’t press the charges, Walter. The United States Government did. Forging federal trust documents and military pay accounts is an automatic federal indictment.”
“We’re your parents!” Patricia shrieked into her phone, pressing her face against the glass. “We gave you life! How can you be so heartless? We made a mistake! We were under so much stress!”
“A mistake?” Jake’s voice cut through her screeching like a razor. “Locking a mother and her baby outside in a negative-fifteen-degree blizzard isn’t a mistake. It’s attempted murder. You took her phone. You took her keys. You sat inside drinking my scotch while my son was suffocating in the snow.”
Patricia flinched, pulling back, unable to meet Jake’s piercing eyes.
“Jake, listen to me,” Walter pleaded, pressing his hands against the glass. “Marcus Thorne is coming for you! He called my lawyer! He’s going to take the house anyway! If you help me get out, I can negotiate with Thorne! I know where his weak points are! I can save the estate!”
“I don’t need your help to deal with Thorne, Walter,” Jake said coldly. “I came here to tell you two things. First, the estate is already restored back to my military trust. The court issued an emergency injunction resetting the title.”
Walter’s face turned white. “And... and my business? Vance Development?”
“Foreclosed,” Jake replied flatly. “The federal government seized all remaining assets to satisfy the victims of your Ponzi scheme. Every bank account, every vehicle, every piece of jewelry you bought Patricia with stolen money... gone.”
Patricia gasped, bursting into fresh, hysterical sobs. “My house! My luxury cars! My wardrobe! Everything?”
“Everything,” Jake said. “You built your life on lies and theft. Now you have nothing. Just like you tried to leave Hannah with nothing.”
Walter grabbed the phone tightly, his knuckles turning white. “You ruined us! You destroyed your own family!”
“No, Walter,” Jake corrected him softly. “You destroyed yourself the moment you thought my love for my family was a weakness you could exploit. Which brings me to my second point.”
Jake leaned closer to the glass.
“I am cutting all legal ties. I have filed for full legal disownment and protection orders. If you, Patricia, or Logan ever come within five hundred yards of Hannah or Owen again after you finish your prison sentences, you will go straight back to a cell. You are no longer my parents. You are ghosts.”
“Jake! Please! Don’t leave us like this!” Walter wept, slamming his fists against the glass. “Jake! I’m your father!”
Jake slowly hung up the receiver. He stood up, adjusted his coat, and walked out of the visitation room without looking back once.
Outside the courthouse, Major Rebecca Hayes was waiting near a black SUV.
“Thorne just made his move,” Rebecca said, holding up her pad. “He sent a team of private security contractors to your property. They are trying to physically break into the house right now, claiming they are taking possession under a private enforcement clause.”
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Jake’s eyes darkened into black ice.
“They think they’re taking my home?” Jake said, walking toward the SUV. “Get in. Let’s show Mr. Thorne’s men what happens when you trespass on a Special Reconnaissance officer’s grounds.”
