Chapter 4 - The Eviction Order
The silence in the room was absolute. Daniel’s relatives—the aunts who had smirked, the cousins who had watched me stumble—were now frantically looking down at their plates, avoiding eye contact as if bankruptcy were contagious.
"Nora..." Lorraine whispered, her arrogant posture completely collapsing. Her hands clawed at the edge of the dining table for support. "Nora, sweetheart... this is a family matter. We can talk about this. Daniel was just stressed... he didn't mean to hurt you..."
"Sweetheart?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Two hours ago, you told me a good wife knows her place. You told me I was lucky Daniel married a plain, useless girl like me."
I walked over to the sixty-dish menu list Lorraine had hand-written on embossed gold stationery and laid on the table. I picked it up, looked at it for a second, and tore it neatly into four pieces, letting the scraps fall onto her silver plate.
"My place isn't in your kitchen, Lorraine," I said, looking her straight in the eye. "My place is at the top of the Vance Heritage trust."
Evelyn produced a stack of thick legal documents from her bag and laid them in front of Daniel.
"These are emergency restraining orders and notice of immediate corporate suspension," Evelyn announced. "Daniel Vance is hereby removed from his position as acting manager of Vance Logistics. His corporate credit cards have been canceled as of twenty minutes ago. His access to the main accounts at First National Bank is frozen."
"You can't do this!" Daniel screamed, his eyes wild with terror. "I have payroll on Monday! I have a shipment of freight coming from the port tomorrow morning!"
"Correction," Frank Vance said, pulling a set of steel handcuffs from his coat pocket and laying them on the table with a loud CLINK. "The port authority seized that shipment an hour ago, Daniel. Turns out, billing Vance Logistics for three hundred thousand dollars of 'consulting fees' paid directly to your mother’s personal shell company in Delaware constitutes federal wire fraud."
Lorraine let out a strangled, breathless cry and sank back into her velvet chair.
"The police are waiting outside, Daniel," Frank continued grimly. "Now, you have two options tonight. Option one: you and your mother sign the voluntary vacate agreement, pack one suitcase each, and step out of this house peacefully within fifteen minutes while Detective Miller completes his preliminary audit."
"And option two?" Daniel spat, his jaw trembling uncontrollably.
Frank picked up the handcuffs. "Option two: I cuff you right now for felony domestic assault based on the hallway video, arrest your mother as a co-conspirator in the Delaware wire fraud scheme, and you both spend your birthday weekend in the county holding cell."
May you like
Daniel looked at his mother. Lorraine was shaking violently, her face gray, her precious pearl brooch lopsided against her collar. He looked at his wealthy relatives, who were already silently grabbing their coats and purses, slipping out through the side terrace doors to avoid being named as witnesses.
Within three minutes, the grand birthday party was entirely deserted, leaving only the three of us, the legal team, and the remnants of a ruined celebration.
