Chapter 7 - The Desperate Visit
By 3:00 PM that afternoon, my doorbell rang three times in rapid succession.
I looked at the security camera monitor in our hallway. Nadine and Chad were standing on our front porch. Nadine was crying, her perfectly coiffed hair disheveled, while Chad was pacing back and forth like a caged animal.
I unlocked the door, but left the heavy iron security screen locked between us.
"Claire! Claire, please open the door!" Nadine sobbed, pressing her hands against the screen. "You have to stop this! They suspended Chad! The bank froze our accounts! We can't even access our credit cards!"
I stood in the entry hall, dressed in a comfortable cashmere sweater and jeans, my hands folded calmly in front of me.
"Hello, Nadine. Hello, Chad," I said quietly.
"Claire, are you crazy?!" Chad yelled, pushing past his mother. "You're destroying my entire life! I spent ten years building my medical career! You can't take everything I worked for over a mistake from five years ago!"
"A mistake?" I echoed softly, my voice cold as ice. "You stole over a million dollars that belonged to our family, Chad. You left me with no money to pay rent while you bought your mother a beach house under a fake company name."
"I paid you child support!" Chad shouted.
"You paid eighty dollars a month because you claimed you were making minimum wage at a resident clinic!" I reminded him sharply. "You let your daughter wear hand-me-down clothes while you drove a Porsche registered to your mother's business!"
Nadine dropped to her knees on the porch stone, clutching the iron screen bars. "Claire, please... I'm begging you! I was wrong! You're not leftovers! You're a wonderful woman! A wonderful mother! Just tell Dr. Marsh to drop the charges! We'll give you money! We'll pay you whatever you want!"
I looked down at Nadine. Five years ago, this woman had stood in my apartment living room while movers took my furniture, laughing as she told me I was "unworthy of the Vance legacy." Now she was begging on her knees on my porch.
"It's not about the money anymore, Nadine," I said softly. "It's about justice. And Dr. Marsh didn't file the fraud charges. The State of Georgia did. I just gave them the evidence."
"Claire! Don't do this!" Chad slammed his palm against the glass panel beside the door. "We were married! We shared a life!"
"You ended that life the night you brought another woman into our bed and told me I was crazy for questioning you," I said, stepping back from the door. "Goodbye, Chad."
"Claire!" he screamed.
I closed the heavy oak front door, turning the deadbolt with a firm, final click.
May you like
Outside, the muffled sounds of Chad yelling and Nadine sobbing echoed for a few minutes before the sound of a patrol car's siren began to wail down our street. Elliot had already alerted neighborhood security.
I walked back into the kitchen, picked up my fresh tea, and took a deep, peaceful breath. The house was quiet, warm, and entirely mine.
