Chapter 5 - The Confrontation at Maple Street
Two weeks later.
The rain poured heavily over the gray asphalt of Maple Street, one of the poorest neighborhoods on the edge of the industrial district. Water gushed through rusted rain gutters, splashing against cracked sidewalks lined with abandoned cars and overflowing trash cans.
I stood under a large black umbrella outside the brick tenement building, dressed in a sharp charcoal suit. Beside me stood my lead lawyer, Alexander Vance, carrying a leather briefcase.
We walked up the creaky, dark stairwell of the building, the smell of damp mold and cheap frying oil hanging thick in the air.
We stopped at Apartment 2B.
From inside, I could hear screaming.
"I told you to turn off the heater, Prudence!" Gertrude’s voice shrieked through the thin wooden door. "The electric bill is already eighty dollars! Where are we going to get eighty dollars?!"
"I'm cold, Mother!" Prudence screamed back, her voice hysterical and hoarse. "I can't live like this! There are roaches in the bathroom! The sink doesn't even have hot water! Why don't you call David again?!"
"He blocked my number! He blocked every phone in this district!"
I raised my hand and knocked firmly three times on the door.
The screaming inside stopped instantly.
A few seconds later, the door creaked open an inch, held by a rusty security chain. Prudence’s face appeared in the gap.
She looked unrecognizable. The flawless makeup, pristine silk dresses, and high-end hair extensions were gone. Her hair was greasy, pulled back in a messy bun. She wore an oversized, faded grey sweatshirt covered in bleach stains, and her eyes were red and swollen.
When she saw me standing there in my tailored suit, backed by my lawyer, her jaw dropped.
"D-David?" she whispered.
"Open the door, Prudence," I said calmly.
She unhooked the chain with shaking hands and pulled the door open.
The apartment was tiny. A single cracked linoleum floor stretched across a cramped living room filled with secondhand furniture that smelled of old smoke. On a sagging brown sofa sat Gertrude, wrapped in a threadbare blanket, holding a cold cup of instant tea.
When Gertrude saw me, she scrambled off the sofa, stumbling over a pile of cardboard boxes, and threw herself toward me.
"David! Oh God, David, you came!" she wept, reaching out to grab my suit jacket. "You came to take us home! You realized how cruel this was! Look at this place, David! Look at how your mother is living!"
I took a step back, letting Alexander step between us.
"Mrs. Ward," Alexander said professionally, pulling a set of legal papers from his briefcase. "We are not here to take you home. We are here to serve you with formal court notices."
Gertrude froze, her tears drying instantly, replaced by a look of wild, terrified desperation. "Notices? What notices?!"
"First," Alexander read smoothly, "a civil judgment from the County Superior Court ordering the complete surrender of all personal bank accounts, vehicles, and secondary properties to satisfy the $470,000 embezzlement claim filed by David Ward."
"We don't have any money!" Prudence screamed, her voice cracking. "We don't have anything left! They took my car yesterday! Two men came with a tow truck and took my BMW!"
"That was the collections agency for the forged credit union loans," Alexander noted impassively. "Which brings us to the second document."
Alexander handed a thick blue folder directly to Gertrude.
"This is an indictment from the District Attorney’s Office. You and your daughter, Prudence Ward, are officially summoned to appear at the State Supreme Court on Monday at 9:00 AM to face felony charges of Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Identity Theft, and Criminal Forgery."
Gertrude’s hands shook so violently the papers rattled in the air. "P-Prison? They want to send me to prison?!"
"With the evidence provided," Alexander stated, "a conviction is virtually guaranteed. The Prosecutor’s Office has offered a plea bargain: six years for Gertrude, three years for Prudence, provided you plead guilty and sign over all rights to any future claims on David Ward's estate or assets."
"NO!" Prudence shrieked, dropping to her knees and grabbing my legs. "David, please! I'm your sister! I was just doing what Mother told me! She was the one who forged the papers! She was the one who told me Sarah didn't deserve anything! It was all her!"
"You vicious little snake!" Gertrude screamed, turning on her daughter like a rabid dog, grabbing Prudence by her hair. "I did it for you! You wanted the designer bags! You wanted the trips to Miami! You begged me for money every single week!"
They began clawing at each other right there on the dirty linoleum floor, screaming, cursing, and blaming each other for the ruin of their lives. Two parasites turning on each other the moment there was no host left to feed on.
I stood there, watching them roll in the dust of their own greed, feeling absolutely nothing. No anger. No pity. No regret.
"Let's go, Alexander," I said softly, turning my back on them.
"David! DAVID! DON'T LEAVE US!" Gertrude’s screams followed me down the dark stairwell, echoing off the cracked concrete walls. "WE ARE YOUR BLOOD! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO YOUR BLOOD!"
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I stepped out of the building into the pouring rain, opened my umbrella, and walked toward my car.
"Blood doesn't make a family, Gertrude," I whispered into the cold rain. "Love does."
