Chapter 8 - The Stranded Return
Four days later, my parents arrived back at the local airport.
Their Mediterranean dream vacation had been an absolute nightmare. Deprived of my funding, they had spent four days stranded in an interior cabin on the cruise ship, forced to pay inflated emergency fees to disembark early in Italy, and spending their last remaining savings on coach airline tickets back to California.
They didn't go to a hotel. They drove straight to the coastal house, expecting to find Julian and Serena holding down the fort.
Instead, they found a massive high-end real estate banner hanging across the front gate: EMERGENCY FORECLOSURE AUCTION - LIQUIDATION SALE.
My mother threw open the gate and charged up the driveway, banging furiously on the front door.
"Julian! Serena! Open this door right now!" she screamed, her voice hoarse from days of yelling.
The door swung open. But it wasn't Julian.
It was me, flanked by two private security guards I had hired to secure the perimeter.
My mother stopped, her eyes wild, her clothes rumpled from the long flight. My father shuffled behind her, looking older and broken.
"Where is your brother?!" my mother demanded, pushing past me into the foyer. "Where is Julian?!"
"Julian is currently in county jail on a $250,000 bail," I replied smoothly, closing the door behind them. "A bail that neither he nor Serena can afford to pay."
My mother turned on me, her face contorting with rage. "You put your own brother in jail?! Over a piece of property?! Are you insane?!"
"I put a criminal in jail," I corrected her. "A criminal who forged my signature, tried to steal nearly a million dollars from me, and a family who aided and abetted him."
"We are your parents!" my father finally spoke up, his voice trembling with anger. "We raised you! You owe us respect!"
"I bought you a $966,000 house," I said, stepping closer to them. "I paid off your debts. I bought you luxury vacation tickets. And in return, you gave my seat away to a stranger, locked me out of my own home, and helped your son try to rob me blind."
I pulled a thick folder from the foyer table and tossed it onto the marble island.
May you like
"Inside this folder are the bank statements showing how you handed your old house to Julian, lost it, and then lied to me so I would buy this one. I know everything, Mom. Every single lie."
My mother’s face went completely pale. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
