Chapter 4 - The House of Falling Cards
The living room of the Long Island home was in total chaos by 1:00 PM.
Cardboard boxes were stacked high in the foyer. Olivia Vance was sitting on a sofa she no longer owned, sobbing loudly into a silk handkerchief, while Richard frantically paced the hardwood floor, his phone pressed to his ear as he dialed lawyer after lawyer.
"What do you mean you can't file an injunction?!" Richard roared into the receiver. "She's my wife! We don't even have a pre-nup! Half of whatever she has belongs to me!"
"Mr. Vance," his attorney’s exhausted voice came through the speaker. "Your marriage certificate was filed in upstate New York five years ago under a fraudulent legal name you provided to avoid your previous tax liens. Technically, the state considers your marriage voidable on grounds of spousal misrepresentation. If you try to claim her assets, her legal team will submit your fraud records to the federal prosecutor."
Richard slammed the phone down against the marble counter, shattering the screen into a spiderweb of cracks.
Vanessa was in the corner, wildly stuffing her designer handbags into a leather suitcase. "I knew it!" she shrieked at Richard. "I knew you were broke! You told me you were going to buy me that Cartier bracelet next week! You're a fake! You're a pathetic, poor fake!"
"Shut up, Vanessa!" Richard screamed, his eyes bloodshot, his polo shirt soaked with sweat. "You're the one who posted that stupid video! If you hadn't uploaded it, her legal team wouldn't have tracked us down so fast!"
"I posted it because you told me to!" Vanessa yelled back. "You wanted to humiliate her! Well, guess what?! Look at the news right now!"
She held up her phone.
The video of the cake smash was still trending, but the headline above it had completely changed.
MANHATTAN TIMES: "Billionaire Heiress Humiliated at Daughter's Party Before Reclaiming $4 Billion Estate."
Underneath the headline was a high-resolution photograph taken forty minutes ago outside the house: Maya stepping out of the Maybach in her white suit, looking regal, icy, and untouchable, while Richard stood in the background looking like a stunned, disheveled servant.
The comments section had turned into an absolute bloodbath.
"Look at his pathetic face! He thought he was a king!" "Karma came back in a Maybach!" "He smashed her face in cake and she took his whole life! QUEEN!" "Does anyone know where his mother lives? I heard they're getting evicted right now!"
Olivia let out another loud, dramatic wail. "My bridge club saw it! Richard! Martha called me from the club and asked if I needed a referral to a homeless shelter! How could you let that... that waitress do this to us?!"
The heavy front door clicked open.
Thomas stepped inside, accompanied by four large men in black tactical uniforms carrying rolling clothing racks and heavy padlocks.
"Time is up, Mr. Vance," Thomas said, checking his silver pocket watch. "The moving crew is here to clear the master bedroom for Mrs. Sterling-Vance’s private security staff."
"You can't throw my mother out on the street!" Richard yelled, stepping up to Thomas, trying to look intimidating. "She's seventy years old!"
"Mrs. Olivia Vance’s personal belongings have been packed into three suitcases currently waiting on the curb," Thomas replied without blinking. "A taxi has been dispatched to take her to a three-star motel in Queens. The reservation has been paid for forty-eight hours. After that, she is advised to seek independent accommodations."
"Queens?!" Olivia gasped, clutching her chest as if she had been shot. "I don't go to Queens! Queens is for people who shop at discount stores!"
"Then I suggest you get used to it, ma'am," Thomas said smoothly, pointing toward the door. "Because your lease on the Southampton cottage was terminated thirty minutes ago due to unpaid back taxes."
Richard grabbed Thomas’s lapel. "Where is she?! Where is Maya?! I want to speak to her right now!"
Before Thomas could move, a deep, commanding voice echoed from the grand staircase.
"Release his collar, Richard."
Julian Sterling walked down the curved stairs, his coat unbuttoned, his hands resting casually in his trouser pockets. Behind him walked Maya, carrying a small leather folder.
Richard froze, his grip slipping off Thomas’s jacket. "Mr. Sterling... please. You don't understand. She manipulated everything! She hid her identity from me for five years! She lied to my whole family!"
Julian stopped at the bottom step, looking down at Richard with absolute disgust.
"She didn't hide her identity, Richard," Julian said softly. "She was hiding from us because she thought wealth corrupted people. And for five years, you proved her completely right every single day."
Julian stepped aside, letting Maya walk forward.
Maya stopped in front of Richard. She opened the leather folder, pulled out a single sheet of paper, and laid it on the entry table beside his ruined phone.
"What's this?" Richard asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"It’s a full release of financial liability," Maya said. "If you sign it, I won't press charges for the identity theft, the fraudulent mortgages, or the two point four million you owe my private lenders."
Richard’s eyes lit up with sudden, desperate hope. "You... you're letting me go?"
Maya smiled—a tiny, razor-sharp smile that made Richard’s skin crawl.
"Read the fine print, Richard," Maya said.
Richard leaned over, his eyes scanning the bottom paragraph of the document.
“In exchange for the cancellation of debt, the undersigned agrees to relinquish all parental rights to Lily Vance, to agree to a permanent multi-jurisdictional restraining order, and to forfeit all personal property acquired during the five-year cohabitation period, including all vehicles, club memberships, and intellectual claims.”
"No..." Richard whispered, looking up at her with horror. "You're taking my daughter?"
"You didn't care about your daughter when you smashed her birthday cake," Maya said, her voice turning to solid ice. "You didn't care about her when you let Vanessa film her crying on the grass while forty-seven people laughed. You don't love Lily, Richard. You only loved the power you thought you had over me."
She handed him a pen.
"Sign the paper, Richard," Maya said. "Or spend the next fifteen years in a federal penitentiary in upstate New York."
Richard looked at the pen. He looked at Thomas and the four tactical officers standing by the door. He looked at his mother crying on the sofa and Vanessa, who was already walking out the gate with her bags without looking back once.
His hand shook violently as he took the pen.
May you like
He pressed the nib to the paper and signed his name: Richard Vance.
"Good," Maya said, taking the paper and handing it directly to Julian’s attorney. "Now get out of my house."
