Chapter 7 - The Family's Desperate Plea
By three o'clock that afternoon, Richard Vance had signed every single legal surrender document Daniel Mercer placed in front of him. Sterling Capital had cut a certified check to Willow Gate Holdings for $140,000, desperate to avoid a public banking scandal.
When I returned to Meadowgate, the gates were secured, and fresh corporate security personnel were stationed at the entrance. The estate felt quiet, peaceful, and truly mine for the very first time in my life.
However, as my car pulled up to the main house, I saw a familiar battered sedan parked near the fountain.
My parents and Claire were waiting on the front porch. They looked exhausted, disheveled, and completely defeated. Claire was wearing oversized sunglasses to hide her swollen, tear-stained eyes, her designer clothes crumpled from sleeping in her car.
As I stepped out of my vehicle, my mother rushed down the stone steps toward me, reaching out her hands.
"Ivy! Thank God you're back!" Mom cried out, her voice high and desperate. "We’ve been trying to call you all day! The bank froze Claire’s corporate accounts! The caterers are threatening to sue her! She has nowhere to go!"
"Her accounts were frozen because they contain stolen operational funds, Mom," I said calmly, holding up a hand to keep her at a distance. "The bank is liquidating those assets to pay back the vendors she cheated."
My father walked down the steps slowly, looking smaller and older than he ever had before. The booming, arrogant tone he had used his whole life was completely gone.
"Ivy... please," Dad said, his voice trembling. "We were wrong. We didn't realize... we didn't know Claire had gone this far. We thought she was just trying to grow her business."
"You didn't care how far she went as long as I was the one paying for it," I replied, looking him dead in the eye. "For years, Dad, you let her belittle me. You cheered when she insulted me. Last night, when she threw a plate of food at my feet, you laughed."
Claire stepped forward, pulling off her sunglasses. The rage she had displayed the night before had transformed into pathetic, desperate pleading.
"Ivy... please," Claire sobbed, dropping to her knees on the stone driveway. "I'm sorry! Okay? I'm sorry! I shouldn't have thrown the plate! I shouldn't have called you a bookkeeper! Just please don't press criminal charges! If I go to prison, my life is over!"
I looked down at my sister kneeling on the pavement—the same sister who had spent her entire life stepping on me to make herself look taller.
"You're not sorry you did it, Claire," I said softly. "You're just terrified that you finally have to face the consequences."
"We're your family, Ivy!" my mother shrieked, tears streaming down her wrinkled face. "Family forgives! Family sticks together!"
"Family doesn't steal four hundred thousand dollars from each other," I replied coldly. "Family doesn't treat one daughter like a princess and the other like a servant. You threw me away years ago, Mom. You just didn't realize I was the one holding the keys to the house."
Daniel Mercer stepped up beside me, holding a final manila envelope.
"Mr. and Mrs. Carter," Daniel announced, "as per Miss Ivy Carter's instructions, Willow Gate Holdings will not initiate personal criminal proceedings regarding the internal corporate embezzlement, provided Claire Carter executes a full surrender of all business rights and agrees to a structured repayment plan for the stolen funds."
Claire looked up, a tiny glimmer of hope touching her face. "You... you're not sending me to jail?"
"The state banking regulators may still press charges for the loan fraud you attempted with Sterling Capital," I warned her sternly. "I cannot protect you from the government, Claire. But I will not destroy you myself. You will sell your luxury car, you will surrender your luxury wardrobe, and you will work a real job to pay back every single cent you stole from this estate."
May you like
Claire buried her face in her hands, weeping bitterly.
"And as for you, Mom and Dad," I said, turning to my parents. "The mortgage on your townhouse has been transferred back into your names. You have thirty days to secure your own financing or downsize. I am no longer your financial safety net."
