Chapter 4 - On Their Knees
When the elevator doors slipped open on the penthouse floor, Douglas and Christian Pembroke stepped out onto the marble floor looking like men walking toward a firing squad.
Christian’s hair was unstyled, his suit wrinkled, and his face pale. Douglas looked as if he had aged ten years in less than five hours.
They were escorted into Walter’s vast corner office.
Standing beside the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean was Fiona, her arms crossed over her chest, looking completely unbothered. Bernadette sat comfortably in a leather armchair, holding a warm cup of porcelain tea. Walter sat behind his immense desk, his eyes cold and unreadable.
Christian stepped forward immediately, his hands trembling. "Fiona... please. I am so sorry. I didn't know—"
"You didn't know my father owned your company?" Fiona cut in smoothly, her voice laced with ice. "Or you didn't know my mother deserved basic human respect?"
Christian swallowed hard, his throat dry. "I was wrong. I was a coward. I should have stood up to my mother the second she opened her mouth. I swear to you, Fiona, I will cut her off completely! I will never let her near you or your family again!"
"Too late, Christian," Fiona said softly. "You showed me your spine when it mattered most, and you don't have one."
Douglas stepped past his son, bowing his head respectfully toward Walter. "Mr. Vance... Walter. Please. I am begging you for mercy. Pembroke Construction is my life's work. My father built the foundation, and I spent forty years expanding it. If Vanguard pulls our credit lines, we go into liquidation by tomorrow evening. Over four hundred workers will lose their jobs!"
"You should have thought about those four hundred workers before you allowed your wife to treat human beings like garbage," Walter replied coldly, leaning back in his executive chair. "You sat at that dinner table, Douglas. You watched her insult my wife's disability. You watched her kick her cane under a chair. And then you sat there silently while she threw wine in her face."
"I tried to stop her!" Douglas pleaded.
"You muttered 'enough,' Douglas," Bernadette's quiet voice broke through the tension. "You didn't stop her. You were afraid of her temper, just as your son was afraid of her approval. You allowed cruelty to sit at your table because it was convenient."
Douglas slumped his shoulders, tears of humiliation welling in his eyes. "Mrs. Vance... please. I apologize on my knees for what happened. My wife is out of control. I have already instructed my lawyers to initiate divorce proceedings against Margaret tonight. She will no longer have any association with Pembroke Construction or my family."
Christian stared at his father in shock, but he didn't defend his mother. The reality of losing everything had stripped away any lingering family loyalty.
"Divorcing your wife won't fix your balance sheets, Douglas," Walter noted flatly. "Your company is over-leveraged, and my forensic team found three million dollars in unauthorized off-shore transfers signed by you and your son over the last eighteen months."
Christian went completely white. "How... how do you have those files?"
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"I own the bank you transferred the funds through, Christian," Walter said, resting his elbows on his desk. "I have two choices right now. I can hand these files over to the Department of Justice at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning, or I can enforce Vanguard's bankruptcy clause and seize Pembroke Construction's assets entirely."
Douglas dropped to his knees right there on the penthouse floor, weeping openly. "Please, Walter... don't send my son to prison. Take the company. Take everything. Just don't destroy us completely."
