Chapter 4 - The House of Cards
"Security feed?" Evelyn blustered, stepping forward to cover her daughter's panic. "Ethan, that is a violation of privacy! You can't record people in their own home!"
"This is my home, Evelyn," I corrected her, my tone dropping like a hammer. "And the cameras recorded more than just physical abuse. They recorded financial theft."
I pulled my iPad from my suit jacket and laid it flat on the dining table, tapping the screen to display a line-item bank ledger.
"One hundred and twenty thousand dollars," I said, looking directly at Evelyn. "Transferred from our household operations account directly to your personal account at First City Bank. Signed by Vanessa using my forged digital signature."
"That... that was a loan!" Evelyn lied frantically, clutching her pearl necklace. "Vanessa lent me that money for Chloe's business venture!"
"It wasn't a loan; it was embezzlement," I replied. "And forging a corporate signature on a private account is a federal financial crime."
Vanessa rushed to my side, her cold demeanor completely disintegrating into frantic pleading. She grabbed my arm, her nails digging through my shirt sleeve.
"Ethan, please! Listen to me!" she sobbed, tears finally spilling down her cheeks—real tears of fear, not repentance. "My mother was going to lose her house! The bank was foreclosing! I couldn't just sit by and watch my family go bankrupt!"
"So you starved my mother and treated her like a slave instead?" I pushed her arm off me with enough force to make her stumble back against the table. "You stole from the woman who paid for the roof over your head!"
"She's old, Ethan!" Chloe screamed, dropping her sweet act entirely. "She doesn't need money! She doesn't need anything! Why are you prioritizing a useless old woman over your wife's family?!"
The utter sickness of her words hung in the air.
I didn't yell. I didn't smash anything. I simply looked at the three of them—three predators who had feasted on my mother's softness and my trust.
"Get out," I said quietly to Evelyn and Chloe.
"Ethan, let's talk about this like rational adults—" Evelyn started.
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" I roared, the full volume of my voice echoing off the high ceilings so loudly that the crystal chandelier rattled above us.
Evelyn and Chloe flinched, jumping back in absolute terror. They didn't argue further. They grabbed their designer bags and fled through the front door, slamming it behind them.
May you like
I turned back to Vanessa, who was cowering against the dining table, trembling violently.
"You have twenty minutes to pack one bag," I told her. "My lawyers will serve you with divorce papers and a temporary restraining order by four o'clock."
