Chapter 6 - The Doorstep Ambush
It took less than twenty-four hours after Marcus served the formal legal demand letters for my family to show up at my building.
At six o’clock on a Thursday evening, my phone buzzed from the building lobby concierges.
“Ms. Bennett,” the front desk security officer said nervously. “There are three people down here demanding to see you. A Mr. and Mrs. Bennett and a young woman. They’re making a considerable commotion.”
“Do not let them up, David,” I replied calmly into the intercom. “In fact, hold them right there. I’ll come down to the lobby.”
I put on a crisp blazer, adjusted my watch, and took the elevator down.
When the doors slid open, the lobby was tense. My mother was pacing frantically near the marble fountain, her eyes bloodshot. My father looked haggard, holding Marcus’s certified legal letter in his shaking hand, while Madison stood near the entrance looking miserable, wearing oversized sunglasses to hide her face.
“Claire!” my mother shrieked the moment she saw me, lunging forward. Security officer David immediately stepped between us, his hand resting near his belt.
“Keep your distance, Evelyn,” I said smoothly, stopping five feet away.
“Are you insane?!” my father roared, waving the legal paper in the air like a madman. “You’re suing your own mother and father for forty-nine thousand dollars?! After everything we did to raise you?!”
“Correction, Dad,” I said coolly. “I am calling in legally binding promissory notes that you signed when you lied about needing roof repairs and medical care. You stole forty-nine thousand dollars from me to fund your gambling habit and buy Madison a luxury car.”
Madison flinched behind her sunglasses.
“Claire, please!” Madison sobbed, stepping forward with her hands clasped in desperation. “Tyler’s family broke off our engagement! His mother called me an opportunistic fraud! The wedding venue is suing me for fifteen thousand dollars in property damages from the kids! I don’t have any money! We’re going to lose everything!”
“You should have thought about that before you laughed at the idea of trapping me in a bridal suite, Madison,” I replied, without a shred of pity.
“We are your parents!” my mother screamed, her voice echoing off the high ceilings as several condo residents stopped to stare. “You owe us! You are a cold, heartless bitch!”
“I owed you respect when you acted like parents,” I replied evenly. “You acted like parasites. You have twenty-eight days left on that legal notice. If forty-nine thousand dollars is not in my attorney’s escrow account by the deadline, Marcus will file a lien against your house.”
I turned back toward the elevators.
May you like
“David,” I said to the security officer. “If these people set foot on this property again, have them arrested for criminal trespass.”
As the elevator doors closed, my mother’s hysterical screams echoed behind me, but for the first time in my life, the noise didn't hurt. It sounded like victory.
