Chapter 8
The realization hit the family like a physical blow,
and the panic immediately shifted into vicious,
uncontrollable anger.
The very same people who had laughed at Carol's cruel jokes,
and gladly accepted her pastel Easter envelopes,
were now ready to tear her apart.
"You stole from us!"
Emily screamed across the table,
pointing an accusing finger right at Carol's face.
"That money belongs to our children,"
Lucas added furiously,
completely forgetting that my children had been excluded just days ago.
Carol stood up abruptly,
her chair scraping loudly against the expensive hardwood floor,
and she pointed a shaking finger at me.
"This is his fault,"
she shrieked desperately,
"Ryan ruined the plaza project,
and if he had just signed the papers,
I could have replaced all the missing money!"
It was a pathetic,
desperate confession,
and her own lawyers actually flinched when she said it out loud.
I leaned forward,
and I rested my elbows on the mahogany table,
feeling completely detached from the screaming mob around me.
"You excluded my children,"
I reminded her,
"and you insulted the woman who holds this family together,
all because you thought your money made you untouchable."
"I was protecting the bloodline!"
she spat back,
showing the ugly,
bigoted truth that had always lived inside her heart.
"You were protecting your ego,"
I corrected her,
"and now you have absolutely nothing left to protect it with."
Her lawyers began packing their briefcases rapidly,
clearly realizing that defending her was a lost cause,
and they advised her to remain completely silent.
Carol looked around the room,
searching for a single sympathetic face among her relatives,
but she found absolutely nothing but rage and deep betrayal.
My parents looked at her with pure disgust,
finally seeing the monster they had enabled for so many years,
and realizing how much it had cost them.
Without another word,
Carol grabbed her designer purse,
the same purse that had snapped shut on Easter Sunday,
and she practically ran out of the conference room.
The heavy wooden doors closed behind her,
and the remaining family members turned to look at me,
their eyes filled with a new,
desperate kind of fear.
"What happens now,
Ryan?"
my father asked softly,
his voice devoid of all its former arrogant authority.
"Now,"
I said,
standing up and buttoning my suit jacket,
"the court appoints a forensic accountant to find the missing money,
and you all learn how to live on a budget."
I turned around,
May you like
and I walked out of the room with Marcus right behind me,
leaving them to deal with the ashes of their own toxic kingdom.
