Chapter 15 - The Golden Son Breaks
The silence that followed Vincent's outburst was louder than a cannon shot.
Richard stared at his favorite son, his mouth open, unable to comprehend the rebellion.
Eleanor reached out to touch Vincent’s sleeve, but he jerked his arm away in violent revulsion.
"Vincent, darling, what are you saying?" Eleanor sobbed.
"We did everything for you!
We gave you the world!"
"You gave me a cage made of glass!" Vincent screamed, tears cutting white tracks through the grease on his face.
"Every time I failed, you paid someone to pretend I was a genius!
Every time I ran a business into the ground, you mortgaged something to cover my shame!
You never let me fail, so I never learned how to stand!"
He pointed a shaking, dirt-caked finger at me.
"Look at him!
He hates you, but he owns the city!
He can walk into any bank in the world and command respect!
And what am I?
I'm a thirty-two-year-old child who doesn't know how to do anything except drink and sign bar tabs!"
"Vincent, stop this," Richard begged, leaning against the sideboard for support.
"We did it out of love."
"You did it out of pride!" Vincent yelled back.
"You didn't love me!
You loved the idea of having a golden prince to show off to the Vanderbilts and the Astors!
You couldn't stomach the thought that your younger son, the quiet one, the one you treated like an unpaid servant, was the only real man in this bloodline!"
Vincent dropped onto a mahogany chair, burying his face in his hands, weeping uncontrollably.
The sight was pathetic, yet for the first time in his life, it was completely authentic.
The mask had fallen off, smashed to pieces on the muddy floor.
I looked at my father, whose face had turned an ashen shade of grey.
"Here is the reality, Richard," I said, drawing an envelope from my inner pocket.
"Julian Cross will be in my office at ten o'clock tomorrow morning to execute the lien."
"What... what are you going to do?" Richard asked, his voice shaking.
"You are going to sign a full confession of forgery," I answered.
Eleanor gasped, falling to her knees by the sofa.
"No!
Richard, you can't!
They will disbar you!
They will put you in prison!"
"If he signs the confession," I continued coldly, "I will buy the High Falls note from Julian Cross at full face value plus interest.
Julian will get his money, and he will drop the federal suit."
"And the confession?" Richard asked, staring at the paper as if it were a coiled viper.
"The confession stays in my vault," I said.
"As long as you and Eleanor live in quiet obscurity, never speaking to the press, never attending another charity gala, and never setting foot in my offices again, it stays locked away."
"And if we refuse?" Richard asked, his voice barely a rasp.
"Then by noon tomorrow, the United States Attorney will have the certified documents.
You will be arrested by federal marshals in this very hallway, Richard.
And Vanguard Freight will issue a press release disowning any connection to your debts."
Richard closed his eyes.
May you like
The weight of seventy years of deceit crashed down on his bowed head.
He reached for his pen.
