Chapter 3 - Trevor’s Morning Reality Check
The silence in the Hayes dining room was heavy enough to crush bone.
Trevor stared at his brother Julian,
his brain desperately trying to connect the dots between the terrified woman who had walked out of his kitchen at dawn and the catastrophic federal audit currently dismantling his empire.
No,
Trevor whispered,
taking a backward step until his lower back hit the sideboard.
It's impossible.
She didn't know anything.
She was just a housewife who spent her days changing diapers and cooking meals for this ungrateful family.
Eleanor walked over to Trevor,
her face contorted into a mask of pure fury,
and delivered a stinging slap across his cheek that echoed off the high ceiling.
You fool!
Eleanor hissed,
her voice shaking with cold rage.
You told me she used to be a corporate accountant before you forced her to quit her job to maintain the Hayes family image.
Did you honestly think a trained corporate auditor wouldn't notice millions of dollars leaking out of accounts she had access to?
Trevor touched his stinging cheek,
his eyes wide with sudden, sickening realization.
She never said a word,
he muttered,
his voice cracking under the weight of his own monumental stupidity.
She smiled and nodded at every insult you hurled at her.
She cleaned up after us without a single complaint.
She acted like she was completely dependent on my mercy.
Because she was playing a long game,
Julian interjected bitterly,
picking up his phone again as another notification pinged on the screen.
Look at this,
Trevor.
The federal investigators didn't just freeze our accounts.
They have exact timestamps,
matching wire receipts,
and internal corporate memos that only someone with master-level administrative privileges could possibly access.
Eleanor grabbed the edge of the mahogany table to steady herself,
her chest rising and falling in rapid succession.
Listen to me very carefully,
Trevor,
she commanded,
her voice dropping to a dangerous, icy whisper.
If the authorities trace this fraud directly to you,
you are looking at twenty years in a federal penitentiary.
And if you go down,
you will take the entire family name,
every trust,
and every single asset down with you.
Trevor swallowed hard,
the expensive cologne he was wearing suddenly smelling like a shroud.
What do we do?
We need to find her,
Eleanor declared,
her eyes narrowing into cold slits.
We need to track her down before she speaks to another prosecutor,
and we need to force her to sign a non-disclosure and settlement agreement,
no matter what it costs us.
Trevor grabbed his car keys off the side table,
his hands shaking so badly he dropped them twice before managing to grip them.
I know where she went,
Trevor breathed out,
a desperate edge to his voice.
She has nowhere else to go.
She went to old Ruth’s house down on Elm Street.
Without another word,
Trevor sprinted out of the dining room,
burst through the front doors,
and jumped into his Mercedes-Benz,
May you like
burning rubber as he sped down the long driveway,
desperate to catch me before my lawyer could drop the hammer on his entire future.
Related Stories
