Chapter 4 - The First Class Parasites
Ten hours later. First Class Lounge, Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris.
The morning sun reflected off the sleek glass walls of the terminal as Thaddius Mercer reclined in a plush leather armchair, a crystal glass of mimosa resting casually in his hand.
Across the low marble table, his mother, Clarice, was admiring a sparkling diamond tennis bracelet she had purchased at the duty-free boutique inside the terminal using her newly issued supplementary black card.
"It really is exquisite," Clarice purred, swirling her coffee. "You know, Thaddius, I was worried the card might flag a security check after that large transaction before we boarded in New York."
Thaddius smiled smoothly, taking a slow sip of his drink. "I told you, Mother. The accounts are completely open. Seraphina’s trust accounts are automated through her holding firm. As long as the proxy I hold remains active, there are no limits."
Genevieve, lounging on a nearby sofa while scrolling through her tablet, let out a delighted laugh. "Look at this suite at the Plaza Athénée, Thaddius! Twelve thousand Euros a night! I booked the two-bedroom penthouse balcony overlooking the Eiffel Tower!"
"Book whatever you want, Genevieve," Thaddius said lazily. "We have seventy-four days. We’re doing the French Riviera, Switzerland, the Italian lakes, and a private yacht charter off Amalfi."
"And... what about back home?" Clarice asked, dropping her voice to a discreet whisper, though her eyes held not a single trace of guilt. "Have you checked the home camera feeds?"
Thaddius pulled his primary phone from his pocket. He tapped the app icon for the penthouse internal security system.
The screen displayed a black box with a red warning banner: CONNECTION FAILED. DEVICE OFFLINE.
"The power cut worked," Thaddius said with a quiet chuckle. "The Wi-Fi router is down. No feed, no logs, no activity."
"How long do you think... it will take?" Genevieve asked, adjusting her sunglasses on top of her head.
"With the climate control off and her severe autoimmune state? Without her daily stabilization doses?" Thaddius shrugged indifferently. "Forty-eight hours, maybe seventy-two. By the time we reach Milan next week, the building management will likely notice a smell or an unpaid maintenance report. They'll break in, find her, and contact me."
He leaned back, his eyes fixed on the Parisian runway outside.
"I’ll feign complete devastation," Thaddius continued, a cold, calculated expression settling onto his face. "I'll tell the press I was on a business trip to secure European investors while she rested at home under medical supervision. I'll blame the home care agency for abandoning her."
Clarice patted his arm approvingly. "You always were so clever, darling. It’s what she deserves anyway. She was so cold, so distant. She never treated me with the respect a mother-in-law deserves."
"She treated us like charity cases," Genevieve spat, taking a photo of her designer bag against the Parisian skyline for her social media feed. "She thought just because her family had some real estate background, she was better than us."
Thaddius’s phone buzzed with a notification. It was an email alert from his corporate secretary in New York.
He opened it, expecting a routine report on morning trading volumes.
Instead, the header read: URGENT: SPECIAL BOARD CONVENTION ANNOUNCEMENT.
Thaddius frowned slightly, tapping the screen. "That’s strange."
"What is it, dear?" Clarice asked, sipping her mimosa.
"Just a routine administrative notification from the firm," Thaddius lied, closing the email. "Nothing that can't wait until we reach the hotel."
He put his phone away, raised his glass, and toasted his mother and sister.
May you like
"To the future," Thaddius announced smoothly. "To total freedom."
Little did he know that at that exact moment, four three-thousand-mile away in a high-floor glass conference room in Manhattan, the board of Mercer Trading Group was sitting down for a meeting that would rip the ground right out from beneath his feet.
