Chapter 4 - The Confrontation
The next morning at 10:00 AM, I drove back to my parents' house—not to apologize, but to officially cut the final tie.
When I pulled into the driveway, a rental car was parked alongside my father's luxury sedan.
I walked into the house through the open front door.
My parents and Ashley were in the living room. My father looked haggard, his designer polo shirt wrinkled, eyes bloodshot. My mother was pacing the floor, clutching a handkerchief, while Ashley sat on the sofa scrolling furiously on her phone.
The moment my father saw me step into the hallway, his face twisted into a storm of fury.
"Where have you been?!" Dad roared, marching toward me, his finger pointed at my face. "Do you have any idea what you've done?! You abandoned this house! You let criminals walk right into my private office!"
I didn't step back. I stood my ground, looking him dead in the eye.
"I didn't abandon anything, Arthur," I said, using his first name for the first time in my life. "I refused to be your unpaid caretaker while you went on vacation."
My mother gasped, clutching her chest. "Arthur? You are calling your father by his first name?! Lauren, where is your respect?!"
"Respect is earned, Mom," I said smoothly, turning my gaze to her. "You left me behind like an inconvenient piece of furniture. You told me my role in this house was to stay behind while everyone else gets to live. Well, I stepped out of that role."
"You selfish little brat!" Ashley yelled, jumping up from the couch. "Because of you, Dad’s business is in jeopardy! Richard Hayes stole the proprietary client ledgers from the safe!"
"So it was Richard," I noted with a cold smile. "Dad, you used me as bait. You knew Richard was coming for those files, didn't you?"
My father's face turned pale. He opened his mouth to deny it, but the guilt in his eyes gave him away.
"You knew he had a key," I continued, the terrifying picture completing itself in my head. "You thought if I was in the house, Richard wouldn't dare break in, or if he did, I would call the police while it was happening, catching him in the act so you wouldn't get your hands dirty. You used your own daughter as a human security system."
"That's not true!" Dad stammered, though his voice lacked conviction. "I... I was protecting the family legacy!"
"You were protecting your illegal offshore accounts," a crisp, unfamiliar voice echoed from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
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Standing in the entryway was a tall, sharp-looking man in a tailored charcoal suit, flanked by two detectives.
"Arthur Vance," the man said, pulling a leather badge from his coat pocket. "I am Agent Thomas with the State Financial Crimes Division. We have a search warrant for this property."
