Chapter 5 - The Glass House
The rain had finally stopped, leaving the valley draped in a thick, eerie fog as three police cruisers and two tactical SUVs escorted Nathaniel and Maribel back to the Pierce family estate.
The estate was illuminated by flashing red and blue lights. Uniformed officers had cordoned off the entire property with yellow crime scene tape.
Nathaniel helped Maribel out of the SUV, carrying their sleeping son wrapped safely inside his warm woolen coat. Together, guarded by two federal agents, they walked up the front steps of the massive stone mansion.
Inside the grand room, the closed casket still sat near the center of the room, its shattered brass latch gleaming under the chandelier. But the room was no longer quiet.
Vivian Pierce sat in a high-backed velvet armchair near the fireplace, handcuffed to the armrest. Her expensive black dress was wrinkled, her silver hair loose and disheveled around her face. Two federal agents stood on either side of her, monitoring her every move.
Sitting directly across from her, sitting quietly on the sofa with a mug of hot tea in his hands, was an elderly man with sharp green eyes and a thick gray beard.
When Nathaniel walked into the room, the elderly man stood up slowly.
Nathaniel stopped dead in his tracks. His jaw dropped in utter disbelief.
"Father...?" Nathaniel whispered, his voice barely audible.
Arthur Pierce—the patriarch of the Pierce family, who had supposedly died in a mysterious boating accident in the South of France seven years ago—stood right in front of him, alive and well.
"Hello, Nathaniel," Arthur said, his voice deep and raspy with age. "You've grown into a fine man. I only wish we were meeting under better circumstances."
"How... how is this possible?" Nathaniel stammered, looking back and forth between his long-lost father and his mother sitting in handcuffs. "We buried you seven years ago! We held a national memorial!"
"You buried an empty box, Nate," Arthur said with a heavy sigh, tossing a worn leather ledger onto the coffee table. "Just like Vivian tried to bury an empty box today."
Vivian let out a bitter, venomous laugh from her chair. "Shut your mouth, Arthur! You abandoned this family! You ran away to hide your debts!"
"I didn't run away from my debts, Vivian," Arthur snapped back, his green eyes flashing with intense fury. "I ran away from you! I discovered seven years ago that you were systematically poisoning my food with low doses of arsenic to induce early-stage dementia—so you could take control of the family trust!"
Maribel gasped, pulling closer to Nathaniel.
"I faked my death to survive," Arthur continued, turning back to Nathaniel. "I fled to Europe, waiting for the day I could gather enough international banking evidence to bring Vivian’s entire criminal empire down. But when I heard through my private investigators three days ago that she was targeting Maribel and my grandson... I took the first flight back to California."
Nathaniel turned his gaze to Vivian. The woman who had raised him, the woman he had respected and obeyed his entire life, was a monster who had systematically dismantled her own family for absolute power and wealth.
"Why?" Nathaniel asked, his voice filled with a profound, aching betrayal. "Why did you do all of this, Mother? Why turn Grant into a criminal? Why try to ruin my life? Why try to kill my wife and take my child?"
Vivian slowly lifted her head, her dry, cold eyes fixing on Nathaniel with zero remorse.
"Because you were weak, Nathaniel," she spat venomously. "You had your father's soft heart. You cared about 'ethics' and 'fair distribution' to the vineyard workers. You didn't have the stomach to rule Pierce & Vale! I built this empire! I secured our place in society! I wasn't going to let a foolish girl from a middle-class background and a weak-willed son destroy thirty years of my work!"
"You didn't build anything, Vivian," Arthur said coldly, stepping beside Nathaniel. "You stole it. And now, every single cent is gone."
Two federal agents unhooked Vivian’s handcuffs from the chair and pulled her to her feet.
"Vivian Pierce, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, corporate fraud, attempted kidnapping, and the attempted murder of Arthur Pierce," the lead agent read aloud.
As they led Vivian toward the front door, she stopped beside Nathaniel. She looked down at the tiny baby sleeping peacefully in his arms, then up into Nathaniel’s cold, unforgiving eyes.
"You'll never survive without me, Nathaniel," Vivian whispered, her voice laced with venom. "This family is cursed. The Pierce name is finished."
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"The Pierce name isn't finished, Mother," Nathaniel said quietly, looking down at his son. "It's just finally starting over without you."
Vivian was escorted out into the pouring rain, her sharp heels clicking against the stone steps one last time before she was shoved into the back of a police cruiser.
