Chapter 8 - The Confrontation at the Collins Estate
On Friday evening, a torrential rain lashed against the windows of my car.
I sat in the passenger seat of Rachel’s SUV as we pulled up to the gates of the Collins family estate in Newton.
I had not come to argue or trade insults.
I had come alongside our corporate process server, who was assigned to deliver the formal legal summons.
The Collins home was an opulent colonial mansion, built on old money that had long since dwindled away to unpaid debts and facade.
When the security gate swung open, we drove up the circular driveway and parked near the stone fountain.
As soon as my boots touched the wet gravel, the front door of the mansion flew open.
Daniel ran out into the pouring rain without an umbrella, his shirt unbuttoned and his hair disheveled.
"Emma! Please! Stop this!" Daniel cried out, rushing toward me before the process server stepped between us.
"Do not approach Miss Vance," the process server stated in a firm, authoritative voice.
Margaret appeared under the sheltered portico, wrapping a cashmere shawl tightly around her shoulders.
"You vindictive little witch!" Margaret shrieked across the driveway, her voice trembling with hysterical rage.
"The bank froze our corporate consulting accounts this morning!"
"The police came to my brother’s office to seize his notary records!"
"You are destroying my family’s name over a few business contracts!"
I walked past the server and stopped five feet from the steps, looking up at Margaret through the rain.
"Your family's name was destroyed the moment you raised a thief and called him a gentleman," I replied.
"You stood in front of one hundred and fifty people and demanded my career, my home, and my dignity."
"You thought I would surrender everything because I was wearing a white dress."
"You thought my love made me blind."
Daniel dropped to his knees on the wet gravel, grabbing at the hem of my raincoat with trembling fingers.
"Emma, I love you, please," he sobbed, tears mixing with the rain streaming down his cheeks.
"I made a mistake, I panicked because of the debts, Mom pressured me to fix our finances!"
"If the board proceeds with the criminal indictment, I will go to federal prison for five years!"
"Please tell Robert Sterling it was an internal mistake!"
"Tell them you authorized the payments!"
I looked down at Daniel, feeling neither anger nor hatred.
All I felt was a profound, liberating emptiness.
The man I thought I loved had never existed.
He was nothing more than an insecure, greedy child hiding behind his mother’s ruthless vanity.
"You made your choice at the altar, Daniel," I said softly, stepping back so his hands slipped into the mud.
"Now you will face the consequences like a grown man."
The process server stepped forward and dropped a thick legal packet onto Daniel’s lap.
May you like
"Daniel Collins and Margaret Collins, you are officially served with notice of indictment and civil litigation."
I turned on my heel and walked back to the car without looking back a single time.
