Chapter 6 - The Begging Call
It was three in the afternoon in Austin.
I was sitting in my glass-walled executive office, reviewing an eighty-page acquisition contract for a cloud infrastructure competitor based in Denver. Outside my window, the Texas winter sun reflected brightly off the shimmering waters of Town Lake.
My desk phone buzzed. My executive assistant, Sarah, came through the intercom. "Lucia, I have a Joanne Brennan on line two. She says she’s your mother. She sounds quite distressed. Do you want me to route her to voicemail?"
I set down my Montblanc pen and leaned back in my ergonomic leather chair. "No, Sarah. Put her through."
A click sounded over the speaker.
"Hello, Mom."
There was an immediate, ragged intake of breath on the other end. "Lucia? Oh, thank God you answered."
"Is everything alright?" I asked, keeping my voice entirely neutral, perfectly even.
"No, Lucia, it’s... it’s terrible here," Joanne began, her voice cracking into high-pitched panic. "Everything is falling apart. Your father’s blood pressure is dangerously high, and Tyler... Tyler is beside himself."
"What happened?" I asked, already knowing every single detail.
"The... the pension settlement fund. There was some kind of horrible bureaucratic mistake. The bank froze all the accounts. They took the cars, Lucia. They came right up our driveway with tow trucks while the neighbors watched! And now the bank is threatening to foreclose on the house addition, and Tyler’s boat business is in jeopardy!"
I listened patiently, tapping my pen against the polished mahogany desk. "That sounds stressful, Mom."
"Stressful? Lucia, it’s a nightmare! We don't have enough money to buy groceries for next week!" Joanne’s voice escalated into desperate weeping. "Your father won't admit it, but we’re ruined. We need help. We need a family loan, just to hold us over until the Chicago lawyers fix this mistake."
"How much do you need?"
"If you could wire us... maybe twenty-five thousand dollars? Just twenty-five thousand to stop the foreclosure notice and pay the marina fees for Tyler’s boat. We’ll pay you back every single cent the moment the settlement clears, I swear on my life!"
I let the silence linger on the line for five full seconds.
"Mom," I said gently. "How is Ellie?"
Joanne paused. "What?"
"How is Ellie? You called me, but you haven't asked once about your five-year-old granddaughter. The one your husband threw out into the snow on Christmas night."
Joanne sputtered. "Lucia, please! That was an unfortunate misunderstanding! Your father was under a lot of stress! You know how he gets about nice things! We don't have time to talk about spilled water right now, our lives are falling apart!"
Suddenly, the phone on the other end was wrenched away. A harsh, furious voice boomed through my speaker.
It was Tyler.
"Listen to me, you selfish little brat!" Tyler roared. "Mom is on her knees crying, Dad is about to have a heart attack, and you're sitting down there in Texas playing games about Christmas dinner? We are your family! You owe this family!"
"I don't owe you a single breath, Tyler," I said, my tone ice-cold.
"You think you’re better than us?" Tyler screamed. "You think because you write some little computer programs down south that you can lecture us? We know you have money saved up! You wire twenty-five grand into Dad’s account right now, or don't you ever dare show your face in Indiana again!"
I smiled softly to myself in my sunlit office. The arrogance was magnificent. Even on the brink of total financial destruction, they still viewed me as the weak, subservient little girl they could bully into submission.
"Tyler," I said calmly.
"What?" he spat.
"Before you lose your voice screaming at me, you might want to look at the deed documents for the stone addition on Dad’s house. Check who the primary lienholder is. And then tell Dad to check his certified mail tomorrow morning."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Tyler demanded.
"Goodbye, Tyler."
May you like
I pressed the red disconnect button on my console, leaned forward, and buzzed my assistant. "Sarah, connect me with Arthur Sterling immediately. It's time to set up the settlement meeting."
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