Chapter 10 - Gina’s Betrayal
Derek tried to push past Deputy Miller, but the deputy grabbed him by the shoulder, shoving him back against the trophy case. The glass rattled.
"Derek Vance, you take one more step toward that child and you're going to spend the weekend in the county jail for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer," Miller warned, his tone leaving no room for argument.
Derek stopped, chest heaving, his face contorted in disbelief and rage. Then his phone began to ring from his pocket. The ringtone was blaring—loud, obnoxious, relentless.
He yanked it out, glaring at the screen, and answered on speaker without thinking. "Gina! What is it?! The police are here, Mom took Jake—"
"I don't give a damn about Jake right now, Derek!" Gina’s screeching voice blasted through the phone speaker, echoing clearly for every deputy, teacher, and administrator to hear. "The bank just sent a repossession crew for the Range Rover! They towed it right out of the driveway while the neighbors watched!"
"What?!" Derek gasped, his voice cracking.
"The lease was tied to the corporate account you defaulted on!" Gina wailed, her voice laced with vicious disgust. "I am done, Derek! I am packing my bags and going to my mother’s in Atlanta. Your lawyer called me—he said the house isn't even in your name! You lied to me! You told me you owned the entire estate! You're nothing but a broke mama's boy living off his daddy's scraps!"
"Gina, wait, don't leave—the kids—"
"Keep the damn kids!" she shrieked. "I’m not raising children in a rented two-bedroom apartment while your mother audits your life! Have fun in bankruptcy court, Derek. I took the cash out of the safe in the closet. Don't bother calling me."
The line clicked dead.
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The silence that followed was suffocating. Derek lowered the phone, his arm hanging limp at his side. He looked around the lobby—at the school principal shaking her head in pity, at the deputies who looked at him with sheer disdain, at his sister Abby who refused to meet his eyes, and finally at me.
The veneer of the powerful, wealthy Brentwood entrepreneur had dissolved entirely. All that was left was an empty shell of a man who had built his entire identity on lies, vanity, and his parents' hard work.
