Chapter 4 - The Counter-Strike
Vanessa did not take the eviction or the termination quietly. Denied access to the Vance family fortune, she launched a vicious public relations campaign.
By Wednesday morning, local gossip blogs and social media platforms were flooded with posts from her personal accounts. She posted pictures of my estate, claiming I was an abusive, unstable matriarch who had kicked her own son out into the street during a family holiday due to severe dementia. She even recorded a tearful video, claiming I had physically threatened her in the kitchen on Easter Sunday.
My phone rang continuously with calls from local journalists and distant relatives asking for statements.
Ruth Kaplan sat in my study, monitoring the digital fallout. "We can file a defamation lawsuit immediately, Evelyn. This is a clear case of tortious interference and malicious slander. We have the security footage from the kitchen showing she was the aggressor."
"No, Ruth," I said, looking out at the blooming rose bushes in the garden. "A lawsuit takes months. Vanessa thrives on public drama; she thinks the court of public opinion will force me to settle to save my reputation. We won't fight her in the mud. We will cut off the oxygen to her fire."
I called the local bank manager who handled the mortgage for the penthouse apartment Vanessa and Daniel had purchased in the city center six months ago—an apartment they had used Vanguard Enterprises as a corporate guarantor to secure.
"Mr. Sterling," I said into the phone. "This is Evelyn Vance. As the sole owner of Vance Enterprises, I am formally withdrawing the corporate guarantee for the property listing at 412 Park Avenue, effective immediately, due to the termination of the primary borrower's employment for financial misconduct."
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Without the corporate guarantee, the bank's risk assessment model automatically triggered an emergency clause in their mortgage contract. Daniel and Vanessa were required to post a three-hundred-thousand-dollar cash bond within forty-eight hours to maintain the loan, or face immediate foreclosure.
An hour later, Vanessa’s public relations campaign abruptly stopped. The videos were deleted, the blog posts vanished, and a heavy, panicked silence fell over their camp. They had finally realized that every time they tried to bite my hand, I simply closed their wallet.
