Chapter 9 - The Panic of the Parasites
By two o'clock in the afternoon,
the Harrison family house in Oak Park was in a state of utter chaos.
Preston had stormed into the living room,
throwing his briefcase against the wall,
shouting at the top of his lungs.
"She froze everything!"
he screamed at his mother,
who was sitting on the sofa.
"The Vanguard contract is gone,
the joint account is empty,
and my office lease is being terminated!"
Eleanor stood up,
her regal composure slipping for the first time in years.
"What do you mean the money is gone?"
she demanded,
her voice rising.
"She is your wife,
she cannot just take the money."
"She didn't take our money,
Mom,"
Preston admitted,
his voice cracking with desperation.
"It was all her money,
every single dollar we've been using was hers."
Morgan walked into the room,
looking up from her phone with a pale face.
"My credit card just got declined at the boutique,"
she complained,
whining like a child.
"What is going on?"
"Your brother ruined us,"
Richard Harrison said,
entering the room with a somber look.
"I just got a call from the bank,
our mortgage extension was denied because Thomas Lin withdrew his personal guarantee."
"Thomas Lin?"
Eleanor gasped,
clutching her chest.
"Maya's father?"
"Yes,"
Richard sighed,
sinking into an armchair.
"He owns the bank that holds our debt,
and he is calling in the loan."
"We have thirty days to pay the balance,
or they foreclose on this house."
The silence that followed was absolute,
the weight of their own arrogance crushing them.
They had treated me like a servant,
May you like
believing they were the nobility,
only to realize they were just tenants in a house built on my family's grace.
