Chapter 6 - The Fall of Ashley
The revelations of financial fraud tore through my family like a hurricane. Within forty-eight hours of the office altercation, my father filed for a complete forensic audit of his accounts, pulling in local law enforcement to investigate Brandon and Ashley’s paper trail.
Desperate to avoid criminal charges, Ashley showed up at my small townhouse on Thursday evening.
It was raining heavily outside. When I opened the door, Ashley was standing on the porch without an umbrella, her designer hair soaked, mascara running down her cheeks.
"Laura, please," she sobbed, holding her hands together in a desperate plea. "Please tell Dad to drop the police report. Brandon is threatening to leave me! He says if I don't get Dad to stop the audit, he'll release everything to the press!"
I stood in the dry doorway, holding a mug of warm tea. "Why are you here, Ashley?"
"I'm your sister!" she cried out. "We're blood! You can't let them send me to prison!"
"You stood in our parents' kitchen three days ago and watched Mom tell me to get rid of my baby," I said, my voice completely devoid of emotion. "You didn't say a single word to defend me. You sat there hoping I would disappear so you could take Eleanor's trust fund."
"I was desperate!" Ashley yelled, her voice screeching over the sound of rain falling off the gutters. "Brandon put pressure on me! He said his family would look down on me if we didn't buy into the partnership! I had to give him money, Laura!"
"So you stole from our father? You let him drain his pension while you watched me struggle to pay off my student loans?"
"You were always fine!" Ashley argued, her voice turning bitter and toxic once again. "You were always the independent one! You didn't need their help like I did! Mom and Dad always loved me more, and you knew it! It wasn't my fault they chose me!"
I looked at my sister, really looked at her, seeing the hollow, selfish void behind her pretty face.
"They didn't choose you because they loved you more, Ashley," I said softly. "They chose you because you were weak enough to let them control you. They built their egos around your perfection, and you let them because you wanted the money."
Ashley stared at me, her teeth chattering from the cold rain.
"I am not giving Dad any advice," I continued smoothly. "And I am certainly not signing any waivers for Eleanor's trust. You made your bed, Ashley. Now you get to sleep in it."
I began to close the door.
May you like
"Laura, wait!" she screamed, reaching out to block the frame. "What about Mom and Dad? They're living in a motel downtown! They don't have anything left!"
"Then I suggest they learn how to survive, just like I did," I said, and closed the door, locking it firmly against the storm outside.
