Chapter 5 - The Collapse of Cards
Within forty-eight hours of the scandal at the country club, Christopher’s world began to burn at an unfathomable speed.
The local news outlets broke the story with massive headlines: PHOENIX TYCOON ACCUSED OF STEALING EMPIRE FROM DYING FATHER AND ABANDONING HOMELESS MOTHER.
Public outrage was immediate and unforgiving. Protesters gathered outside the corporate headquarters of Romano & Dawson Logistics, holding signs depicting Christopher’s face crossed out with the word UNFILIAL.
In his high-rise executive office, Christopher sat staring at his computer screen in absolute horror.
His foreign investors had pulled out of the Scottsdale expansion project within hours. The bank had frozen his corporate credit lines pending the outcome of Vance’s federal lawsuit. Worse, the IRS had opened an emergency criminal audit into his holding companies after Vance submitted the unsealed ledger from Arthur’s safety deposit box.
The heavy mahogany doors of his office burst open.
Dr. Victoria Dawson rushed in, her white lab coat rumpled, her face frantic with pure panic. She didn't bother knocking.
"Christopher!" Victoria screamed, slamming her designer handbag onto his glass desk. "What did you do?! The medical board just called me! They’ve suspended my surgical privileges pending an ethics investigation into the eight hundred thousand dollars you transferred to my clinic!"
Christopher buried his face in his hands, his voice muffled and desperate. "I didn't do anything! It was Mom! She found Dad's vault! She hired Richard Vance!"
"How did she find the vault?!" Victoria shrieked, tears smearing her mascara. "You told me Dad didn't leave anything! You told me all the paperwork was destroyed!"
"I thought it was!" Christopher yelled back, jumping out of his chair. " Dad hid the key behind an old dresser! Patrick found it!"
Victoria sank into an armchair, her hands clutching her head. "My husband is leaving me, Christopher! He says he won't be dragged down by a family scandal! The bank is threatening to foreclose on my clinic building! You have to fix this! Talk to Mom! Beg her!"
"Do you think she’ll listen to me?!" Christopher roared, throwing a crystal paperweight against the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces. "I threw her out on the street, Victoria! And you gave her a hundred-dollar bill and told her to find a cheap nursing home! We both treated her like trash, and now she owns the ground we walk on!"
Before Victoria could answer, Christopher’s desk phone rang.
He picked it up with shaking hands. "What?!"
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"Mr. Dawson," his secretary quaked over the speaker. "The Federal Marshals are in the lobby with a court-ordered seizure warrant for all corporate servers and financial records. They are coming up the elevator now."
Christopher dropped the phone receiver. He looked at his sister, both of them staring at each other in absolute, paralyzed terror as the heavy footsteps of law enforcement echoed down the long marble corridor outside his office.
