Chapter 6
Walter slowly lowered his eyes back to the documents in his hands, turning the pages with deliberate slowness. His glasses caught the amber light of the candles as he scanned the itemized list of charges Richard had fabricated over the past thirty-six months. "Look at this," Walter murmured, shaking his head in profound disbelief. "Charging her two thousand dollars a month for a room with a leaking radiator. Charging her for parking in her own grandfather's driveway. You even billed her for the electricity consumed by the space heater she had to use because you turned off the central heating in the east wing to save on your heating bills." "The heating bill was exceptionally high that winter," Elaine muttered defensively from her seat, her face burning with humiliation as the relatives began whispering among themselves. "Shut up, Elaine," Richard snapped, glaring at his wife for making things even worse. Walter looked up from the papers, his aged eyes locking onto his son with a chilling, unforgiving stare. "Thirty years ago, Richard, I handed you the keys to my company and trusted you to carry the family legacy with honor. I gave you this house, this name, and a lifestyle most people could only dream of. And in return, you turned my home into a tollbooth, shaking down my own flesh and blood while I was recovering from surgery just down the hall." "Dad, please," Richard pleaded, his voice cracking as his bravado completely evaporated. "It was just... we hit a rough patch with the market investments. The real estate portfolio took a hit last year, and we needed short-term liquidity to cover some margin calls. We fully intended to pay it back!" "With interest?" Emma asked archly, raising an eyebrow. Richard glared at her. "Of course not with interest, you—" "Exactly," Emma interrupted smoothly. "You didn't intend to pay it back at all. You treated me like a cash cow to bail out your own reckless stock speculation."
