Chapter 15 - The Midnight Descent
I didn't answer right away. I let the silence hang over the line, listening to Arthur’s panicked, shallow panting. In the background, I could hear Jason screaming into another phone, kicking furniture, and Amanda’s muffled sobs echoing through the marble hallway of the Vance family house.
"I didn't do anything to your accounts, Arthur," I said coldly, intentionally stripping the word 'Dad' from my vocabulary for the first time in my life.
There was a dead pause on the other end.
"What did you call me?" Arthur snarled, his voice dropping into a venomous hiss. "You ungrateful little bastard! After everything I gave you! I fed you, I let you keep my name, I let you sit at my table today when you should have been rotting on the streets! You owe this family your life! Your brother is facing prison time because Vanguard audited our accounts thirty minutes after you left!"
"Jason is facing prison because he stole three million dollars from an escrow account to buy sports cars and impress country club socialites," I replied evenly. "Don't lecture me about gratitude."
"You listen to me, you worthless failure," Arthur spat, the venom dripping from every syllable. "Amanda found your address in your tax file from last year! We are five minutes away from your little mountain hideout. You are going to sign the guarantor paperwork for Jason’s legal defense fund, or so help me God, I will ruin your name in every court in this commonwealth!"
The line went dead. Arthur had hung up.
I set the phone down. Julian remained seated, his eyes cold and calm, a predator watching a rabbit run headfirst into a snare.
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"They're coming here?" Emily asked, checking the security feed. "They took the state highway. The gate sensors just picked up Arthur’s Mercedes turning onto the private access road."
"Let them come," Julian said softly, adjusting his cufflinks. "Thirty-five years of cowardice driving through the dark. It’s time Arthur Vance learned who really owns the roof over his head."
