Chapter 8 - The Reckoning
"You?"
Leo finally choked out,
his face turning red with a mix of anger and disbelief.
"You are behind Apex Holdings?
You bought our debt?"
"Every single penny of it,"
Clara confirmed,
tapping her manicured nails on the table.
"The mortgages,
the business loans,
even the shady credit lines you opened to pay off your bookie,
Leo."
"This is a joke,"
Eleanor stammered,
stepping forward.
"Clara,
sweetheart,
is this true?
You are...
you are successful?"
"Do not call me sweetheart,"
Clara snapped,
her voice echoing loudly in the large room,
making Eleanor flinch.
"I ceased being your sweetheart the night you threw me into a storm with a bleeding hand."
Richard looked down,
shame finally washing over his features.
"Clara,
we...
we made a mistake,"
he said softly.
"A mistake?"
Clara laughed,
a dry,
humorless sound.
"You stole my future to fund his failures,
you watched me bleed on the carpet and threw me out like garbage,
that was not a mistake,
that was a choice."
"We are family!"
Leo yelled,
slamming his hands on the table.
"You cannot do this to us!
You are rich,
just wipe the debt clean,
give us our house back!"
Clara stood up slowly,
her eyes locking onto Leo with lethal intensity.
"Family?"
she whispered,
walking slowly around the table toward him.
"Family does not leave their own to starve,
family does not steal."
She stopped right in front of him.
"You took my college fund because you thought you were better,
you thought you were the heir to an empire,
but you are nothing,
Leo,
you are a pathetic,
spoiled failure who could not build a lemonade stand,
let alone a business."
Leo raised his hand as if to strike her,
reverting to his old, violent ways.
Before he could even swing,
two massive security guards stepped out from the shadows of the doorway,
hands resting on their holstered tasers.
Leo froze,
lowering his hand quickly,
terrified.
"Touch me,
and you will spend the rest of your life in a cell,"
Clara stated coldly.
Eleanor burst into tears,
falling to her knees on the expensive carpet.
"Please,
Clara,
I am begging you,
we have nothing,
we will be homeless!"
"Then I suggest you find a bus stop awning,"
Clara replied,
looking down at her mother without a shred of pity.
"It builds character."
She walked back to her seat,
picking up the golden folder.
May you like
"You came here to beg for an extension,
the answer is no."
