Chapter 4 - The House of Cards Crumbles
"Security," Sterling Hartwell barked.
Immediately, four large, muscular guards stepped forward, blocking the exit to the elevator.
"You can't hold us here!" Clarice screamed, her polished facade completely shattering into hysteria. "This is illegal! Thaddius, do something! Call the police! Call our lawyers!"
"With what phone, Mother?" Seraphina asked mildly. "The phone Thaddius stole from my nightstand? The account was suspended six weeks ago. In fact, all accounts associated with your names have been systematically liquidated, frozen, or attached to federal seizure warrants."
Thaddius frantically pulled his phone from his pocket. The screen displayed a harsh red warning banner: SERVICE DISABLED - ACCOUNT TERMINATED BY ISSUING AUTHORITY.
He scrambled to open his banking apps.
Account Balance: $0.00. Account Balance: $0.00. Credit Limit: REVOKED.
"My firm..." Thaddius gasped, his eyes wild with terror. "Hartwell Trading... I am the CEO!"
"You were the CEO," Seraphina corrected him smoothly, pulling a sleek tablet from her folder and holding it out for him to see. "As of 9:00 AM this morning, the Board of Directors convened an emergency session. I presented the video footage from this penthouse's hidden security cameras—the footage of you disabling the power grid, shutting off the water, stealing my medication, and leaving me to die."
Thaddius stared at the tablet screen. Played in crystal-clear 4K resolution was the undeniable footage of his own face, cold and calculating, as he swept the amber pill bottles into the metal bin.
"The board voted unanimously to terminate your employment for gross moral turpitude, treason, and attempted murder," Seraphina continued. "Furthermore, the Securities and Exchange Commission was handed seven years of audit files showing that every profitable trade Hartwell Trading ever made was actually executed by my private automated algorithms. You didn't build an empire, Thaddius. You were merely an empty suit holding my clipboard."
"No... no, no, no!" Thaddius roared, dropping his tablet, his face contorted in rage and desperation. He lunged toward Seraphina, his fingers clawed like a desperate animal. "You ruined me! I made you! You were nothing without me!"
Before he could get within two feet of Seraphina, Sterling Hartwell stepped in. With a single, devastating thrust of his arm, Sterling grabbed Thaddius by the throat, slamming him hard against the cold marble pillar in the center of the room.
Thaddius gagged, his legs dangling inches off the floor as Sterling held him fast with a iron grip.
"Touch my daughter again," Sterling growled, his voice vibrating with absolute lethality, "and the police won't find enough of you to put in a cell."
Sterling hurled Thaddius to the floor like a sack of trash. Thaddius collapsed, coughing violently, clutching his neck as he wept on the floor.
Clarice and Genevieve rushed to his side, weeping hysterically, their designer clothes rumpled and disgraced.
"Please, Seraphina!" Clarice wailed, crawling on her hands and knees toward her daughter-in-law. "We were deceived! Thaddius told us you were already dying! He told us the doctors said there was no hope! We didn't know he cut the water! We are family!"
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Seraphina looked down at Clarice, her expression utterly cold, unyielding, and devoid of pity.
"Family doesn't laugh in the hallway while a woman starves in the dark," Seraphina said. "Family doesn't ask if they should stop living while someone else's life is being stolen. You enjoyed my wealth when you thought I was a corpse. Now, you will enjoy the consequences of your cruelty."
