Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3 — The Paperwork of Ruin
Douglas Fry was not a man who accepted defeat easily.
He was a bully who used money to bludgeon people into submission.
He stomped forward, his face flushed with a furious, mottled red.
"This is illegal!" Douglas roared, pointing at Amanda.
"That original deed had a reversion clause! It was a temporary family transfer!"
Amanda slowly pulled a sleek, laminated document from her briefcase.
"Oh, you mean the deed you downloaded from LegalZoom ten years ago, Douglas?"
She held the document up so he could see the glaring red corporate stamps on it.
"You were too cheap to hire a real estate attorney when you dumped this 'worthless dirt' on your daughter."
"There was no reversion clause. There was no temporary trust."
"It was a fee simple absolute transfer. Sienna owned it free and clear."
Amanda took a step closer to my father, her heels clicking aggressively on the gravel.
"And she had every legal right to sell it to Verdant Ventures."
"For two point eight five million dollars."
The number hung in the air like a guillotine blade.
Two point eight five million dollars.
Vivien let out a strangled, high-pitched gasp.
Garrett’s knees visibly buckled. He had to lean against the moving truck to stay upright.
"Two million..." Garrett whispered, his eyes wide with a sudden, manic desperation.
He suddenly pushed past his father and stumbled toward me.
"Sienna! Sienna, listen to me!"
The security guards instantly stepped forward, forming a physical wall between us.
Garrett didn't care. He pressed against the guards, pleading.
"Sienna, you have the money! You have three million dollars!"
"You can pay off my debt! You can save me!"
He was practically hyperventilating, sweat pouring down his forehead.
"The interest is compounding every week, Sienna! They're going to break my legs!"
"They know where I live! Just give me a million! You'll still have plenty left!"
I stared at him through the narrow gap between the security guards' shoulders.
"Give you a million dollars?" I repeated softly.
"Yes! We're family!" Garrett begged, tears welling in his eyes.
"Family," I echoed, tasting the bitter irony of the word.
"Where was this family when I spent my first winter here without hot water?"
"Where was this family when I worked fourteen-hour days, crying from exhaustion, begging for a tiny loan to buy seeds?"
"You laughed at me, Garrett."
"You sat in your luxury Manhattan apartment, paid for by Daddy, and called me a failure."
I stepped around the security guards, looking my brother dead in the eyes.
"I didn't take the money for myself, Garrett."
"I placed the entire two point eight five million into an irrevocable, locked corporate trust."
"I can't touch the principal. You can't touch the principal."
"Not even a federal bankruptcy judge can touch the principal."
"It is completely, utterly, and legally out of your reach."
Garrett stared at me, his mouth opening and closing like a suffocating fish.
"You... you locked it away?" he whispered, horrified.
"I protected it," I corrected him.
"From you. From Mom. From Dad."
Vivien pushed her way forward, her designer makeup running down her face.
"Sienna! How could you be so cruel?" she shrieked.
"Your brother is in danger! These are bad people he owes money to!"
"You are sentencing him to death over a petty grudge!"
I turned my cold gaze to my mother.
"He sentenced himself, Vivien."
"He gambled. He lost. And instead of taking responsibility, you all drove out here to violently steal my home."
"I didn't start this war."
"But I absolutely finished it."
Amanda Cortez checked her Cartier wristwatch and sighed.
May you like
"This family reunion has been charming," Amanda announced brightly.
"But my client has a business to run. And you have five seconds to vacate Verdant Ventures' property."
