Chapter 4 - The Corporate Collapse
The Millers had always survived on appearance. My father, Robert, was a retired regional director for a mid-tier logistics firm, and he spent his days sitting on the board of the local country club, pretending his family was a dynasty of old Southern wealth. My brother, Julian, worked as a senior loan officer at the largest credit union in the county—a job he had secured largely because I had introduced him to the regional VP three years ago.
By Monday morning, the fallout of my "scene" began to hit their foundations.
I arrived at my office at 8:30 a.m. As the senior vice president of operations for a regional tech firm, I had a significant amount of professional leverage in our small city. I hadn't used my position to sabotage them; I didn't need to. I had simply stopped protecting them.
At 10:15 a.m., my assistant notified me that Julian was in the lobby, demanding to see me. He didn't have an appointment, and according to the receptionist, he looked like he hadn't slept in forty-eight hours.
"Send him into the small conference room," I said, adjusting my blazer. "And keep the security guard nearby."
When I walked into the room, Julian was pacing back and forth, his tie loosened, his expensive leather briefcase thrown carelessly onto the glass table.
"Catherine, you have to withdraw that report," he burst out the moment the door clicked shut. "The Department of Social Services sent a field agent to my house this morning. They’re investigating me and Vanessa too because our kids were in the van when it happened! They’re calling it 'witness validation to chronic child neglect'!"
"The boys were in the van, Julian. They watched their aunt and grandparents dump their cousin on the highway. That is child neglect," I said, sitting down at the head of the table, keeping my notebook closed.
"Do you have any idea what this does to my job?" Julian pleaded, leaning over the table, his eyes wide with panic. "The credit union has strict character clauses for senior officers. If there's an active criminal investigation into my household regarding child endangerment, the compliance board will suspend my lending license! Vanessa is hysterical. She thinks we’re going to lose the house!"
"Then you should have stopped Mom from opening the door of the van, Julian."
"I was in the front seat! I was looking at the flight status on my phone!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "Dad was driving! By the time I realized what they were doing, Abigail was already out on the gravel! What was I supposed to do? Ruin the vacation for my own kids? We spent four thousand dollars on those Disney tickets, Catherine!"
"Four thousand dollars of my money, Julian," I reminded him softly. "The money I transferred to your account last month for 'house repairs' that you spent on park passes."
May you like
Julian sank back into his chair, his face draining of color. "Catherine... please. We're your brothers and sisters. We're your blood. You can't just destroy us over one bad afternoon."
"It wasn't one bad afternoon, Julian. It was thirty years of you all treating me like a vending machine that takes insults instead of coins," I said, standing up and opening the door for him. "The investigation stays. If you want to save your job, I suggest you hire a very good defense attorney. Because when the state attorney looks at that highway footage, they aren't going to care about your Disney tickets."
