Chapter 2 - Dust and Deceit
The lead excavator didn't hesitate.
With a deafening roar of its diesel engine, the massive yellow metal claw swung upward. Richard, Victoria, and Julian screamed, scrambling backward onto the porch as the steel bucket slammed into the double-car garage.
CRASH.
The wood splintered, concrete cracked, and the expensive luxury SUV parked inside was crushed flat under a shower of bricks and drywall.
"My car!" Victoria shrieked, clutching her face. "Richard, do something! Call the police!"
"I am the police in this county, Victoria," Eleanor said softly from the back of the limousine, though they couldn't hear her over the destruction.
Richard frantically pulled out his phone, his fingers trembling as he dialed. But before he could even press call, three black SUVs marked with federal seals pulled up behind the excavators. Men in tactical gear stepped out, locking down the perimeter. They weren't there to stop the demolition. They were there to enforce Eleanor’s orders.
"Richard!" Victoria screamed as the excavator claw tore through the master bedroom balcony on the second floor, sending a rain of glass and designer clothes into the snow. "They're destroying everything!"
"Eleanor, please!" Richard begged, running toward the limousine, only to be blocked by two massive Vance security guards who pinned him to the wet asphalt. "The girl is fine! She's right there! She's fine! Let's talk about this!"
I watched from the warmth of the limousine. I felt no pity. I felt no remorse. I remembered my fingers losing feeling. I remembered Victoria drawing the curtain halfway shut, smiling at my misery. I remembered Julian mocking my acceptance letter to Briarwood Academy.
"Where is my daughter’s trust fund, Richard?" Eleanor’s voice cut through the noise of the collapsing roof.
Richard froze, his face pressed against the wet snow. "What?"
"The trust fund my daughter, Sarah, left for her child," Eleanor said, her eyes narrowing. "The one you were supposed to manage until her eighteenth birthday. Today is that day. And my auditors have spent the last three hours looking through your corporate accounts."
Richard’s silence was louder than the excavator tearing down the kitchen wall.
"You spent it, didn't you?" Eleanor whispered, a dangerous smile touching her lips. "You used my granddaughter's inheritance to fund your failing real estate projects. You used it to buy Victoria's jewelry. You used it to buy your son’s loyalty."
"It was an investment!" Richard gasped. "I was going to pay it back!"
"You are going to prison, Richard," Eleanor said simply. "Vance, clear the house of any remaining personal items of my granddaughter's. As for the rest... level it."
Within thirty minutes, the house that had been my prison for seven years was nothing but a pile of shattered timber, twisted metal, and broken glass, slowly being covered by the falling Colorado snow. My father, stepmother, and half-brother stood on the sidewalk, shivering in their expensive clothes, stripped of their home, their dignity, and their future.
May you like
Eleanor rolled up the window, shielding us from the view.
"Now, my darling," she said, turning to me with a soft, warm smile. "Let’s get you to Boston. Your real life is about to begin."
