Chapter 2 - THE ROOFTOP COLLAPSE AND THE DESPERATE DRIVE
The silence on the video call lasted for five agonizing seconds.
Brandon stared at my screen through his front-facing camera, his chest heaving, his brain desperately trying to compute a reality where his father—the quiet, worn-out old man he had beaten and humiliated just twelve hours earlier—held the ultimate trump card.
"What... what did you say?" Brandon whispered, his voice dropping an octave as panic fully seized his throat. "What do you mean, my things? Dad, stop messing around. Amber is crying! The police are literally outside! Fix this right now or I swear to God—"
"You'll what?" I interrupted, my voice calm, steady, and entirely devoid of the warmth a father should have. "You'll hit me another thirty times? You'll prove to your wife how big and strong you are by beating an old man whose hands built the very roads you drive your luxury car on?"
Brandon flinched. He glanced off-camera, likely terrified that his colleagues or secretary might hear what was happening.
"Dad... look, okay? I lost my temper last night," Brandon stammered, his arrogant facade completely melting into pathetic desperation. "I was stressed. Work has been crazy. Amber was getting on my nerves. It was a mistake, alright? I'm sorry. Let's just talk. Where are you? I'll leave the office right now, we can go get lunch, and you can call these guys off. Whatever paperwork mix-up happened, we can fix it at the title company."
"There is no mix-up, Brandon," Arthur Vance leaned into the frame, his voice sharp as a surgical blade. "Arthur Vance here. For the record, every document filed today was executed under clear legal authority by the sole beneficial owner of Redwood Capital. There is nothing to fix. The transaction is closed, recorded, and sealed."
"Who the hell is that?" Brandon snarled, panic turning back into defensive fury. "Dad, why is your lawyer involved in this?! That’s our house! I live there! My clothes are in the closet! My cars are in the garage!"
"Your cars?" I chuckled softly. "Let me check my dashboard notifications, Brandon."
I tapped my tablet. A secondary alert popped up from the River Oaks property manager.
"Ah. Perfect timing," I said, looking back at the camera. "Tow trucks just arrived to impound the Porsche and the BMW. Apparently, the vehicle titles were registered under the corporate umbrella of Redwood Capital as well. You didn't actually finance them, son. I did. You just made the monthly insurance payments to play pretend."
On the screen, Brandon let out a sound that was half-shriek, half-sob.
"You can't do this!" he roared, slamming his fist onto his office desk so hard that his water glass rattled. "You're ruining my life! Do you know what my business partners will say?! Do you know what Amber's parents will think?! I am a VP at Sterling & Vance! I have a standing reservation at the Country Club! I am a man of status!"
"Status?" I repeated the word slowly, letting the irony drip from every syllable. "Status is something you earn with character, Brandon. Not something you rent with your father’s money while wearing a tailored suit bought with my dividends."
"Dad, please!" Brandon’s voice cracked, dropping into a ragged, pleading whine. "Please don't do this to me! I'll apologize to you! I'll kneel right here in the office! Just call off the movers! Please!"
"You had your chance to kneel last night, Brandon," I said coldly. "Instead, you chose to use your fists."
I tapped the red end-call button.
The screen went black.
Arthur Vance exhaled a long breath, shaking his head. "Franklin, that was cold enough to freeze the Gulf of Mexico."
"It's not cold, Arthur," I said, standing up and buttoning my jacket. "It's architecture. Sometimes, to save a structure from total collapse, you have to demolish the rotten foundation before it brings down everything around it."
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"Where are you heading now?" Arthur asked, gathering the blue folders into his briefcase.
"To the bank," I said, grabbing my worn leather briefcase. "Because the house was only chapter one. Brandon thinks he's a big-shot corporate executive at Sterling & Vance. It’s time I checked on how he got that job in the first place."
