Chapter 28 - The Poisoned Well
The air in the room grew suffocatingly heavy. I took a sharp step forward, grabbing Victor by the lapels of his expensive overcoat and shoving him back against the wooden wall with a dull thud. The casual smugness vanished from his face, replaced for a split second by genuine panic before his mask of icy composure snapped back into place.
"Try anything like that again, and I’ll throw you out this door headfirst, debt or no debt," I growled, my knuckles whitening against his wool fabric.
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Victor didn't flinch. Instead, he raised a gloved hand in mock surrender, a sick smile playing on his thin lips. "Go ahead, Julian. Assault me. Add a criminal record to your sparkling new life of rural poverty. But it won't change the facts. The legal papers will arrive at your post office box by Monday morning. You owe the holding company four hundred thousand dollars. And if you can't pay..." He glanced deliberately around the cozy living room. "...well, the county sheriff is an old acquaintance of mine. Foreclosure proceedings move much faster when local taxes and private liens are combined."
He smoothly extracted himself from my grip, adjusting his lapel with agonizing slowness. "Enjoy your apples while you can, cousins. Autumn doesn't last forever. And winter in Oakhaven is famously brutal." With a final, sickening smirk, Victor turned, stepped out into the crisp night air, and vanished into the darkness as silently as he had arrived.
