Chapter 4 - The Family Ambush
Two days later, I returned to my apartment to collect my remaining portfolio designs.
I knew I couldn't stay in that city apartment forever, but I needed my hardware drives and design sketches to restart my independent brand identity agency.
When I stepped out of the elevator onto my floor, I found my mother sitting on the floor beside my doorway, looking exhausted and disheveled.
The moment she saw me, she scrambled to her feet.
"Olivia!" she cried, rushing toward me. "Thank God! You're finally back! I've been calling your phone for forty-eight hours!"
I stopped ten feet away, keeping my distance. "I blocked your number, Mom."
"How could you do that?!" my mother wailed, her eyes red-rimmed. "Do you have any idea what your sister is going through?! Chloe hasn't eaten in two days! The media is hounding her! Ethan’s parents are threatening to sue us for the cost of the wedding preparations!"
"Ethan’s parents can sue Ethan," I said coldly, pulling my keys from my purse. "He’s the one who committed federal financial fraud."
"He did it for your sister!" my mother yelled, her voice echoing in the quiet hallway. "He was desperate to give her the wedding she deserved! If you had just given him a little time to sort out his accounts, none of this horror would have happened!"
I froze, my key halfway to the lock. I turned slowly to face her, absolute disbelief washing over me.
"Are you honestly sitting here telling me that Ethan stealing my life savings and embezzling from his biggest client is my fault?" I asked, my voice dangerously low.
"You brought Alexander Vance to that church!" my mother screamed. "You publicly humiliated our family! You destroyed your sister's reputation!"
"Ethan dumped me five days ago in my own living room!" I shouted back, tears finally spilling over my lashes—not from grief, but from pure, unadulterated outrage. "He called me fat! He said I was too embarrassing to stand next to him! And you—my own mother—called me three hours later and told me to get over it so Chloe could have her fairy tale!"
My mother flinched slightly, but her defensiveness remained rigid. "Chloe is younger! She's delicate! You've always been independent, Olivia! You can handle things! Chloe needed this marriage!"
"She needed a crook?" I asked with a bitter laugh. "Well, she got one. Now please get away from my door before I call building security."
"Olivia, please," my mother’s voice suddenly shifted into desperate begging. "The SEC is seizing everything Ethan bought. They're even looking into the money he transferred to Chloe's account for her dress and jewelry. We need money for lawyers. You have to ask Alexander Vance to drop the charges!"
I opened my apartment door, stepped inside, and turned back to look at the woman who had birthed me.
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"I will never ask Alexander to protect a man who robbed me," I said cleanly. "And as of today, Mom, you don't have two daughters anymore. You only have Chloe. I hope she was worth it."
I slammed the door in her face and turned the lock.
