Chapter 2 - THE ANONYMOUS BENEFACTORThe next morning, Thompson Global Technologies lost four percent of its market value within twenty minutes of the opening bell. The media was in a frenzy. Talk shows debated maternal rights, online trolls painted my sisters and me as ruthless, heartless billionaires, and Maria was appearing on every major network, shedding crocodile tears into designer handkerchiefs.
"She’s playing the public like a fiddle," Claire slammed her tablet onto the boardroom table. "She gave an interview to Good Morning America claiming we paid security to assault her outside the building!"
"It's a shakedown," Sophie said coldly. "We hire the best corporate hit-squad lawyers in New York and crush her into dust."
"We can't just fight this in court," I said, pacing the room. "The court of public opinion will execute our stock before a judge even reads the initial filing. We need to know who is backing her."
"What do you mean 'backing her'?" Claire asked.
"Look at her, Claire! Thirty years ago she was a small-town woman with no connections. Yesterday, she walked into our headquarters wearing a two-hundred-thousand-dollar legal team and a million dollars worth of Harry Winston jewelry. Someone with deep pockets is funding her campaign to dismantle us."
Right on cue, my secretary hurried into the room, looking pale. "Ava... there’s a legal team downstairs. They aren't just filing a claim. They’ve served an emergency injunction."
We rushed down to the main legal floor. Standing there was Victor Vance, the most feared corporate liquidator in the country. A man known as the 'Corporate Undertaker.'
"Miss Thompson," Vance smiled, presenting a leather-bound folder. "My client, Mrs. Maria Thompson, has filed for an immediate freeze of all Thompson Global assets pending a parentage and equity discovery trial."
"On what grounds?" I demanded, my blood running cold. "She signed away her maternal rights when she deserted us!"
"Ah, but that's where you're mistaken," Vance sneered. "She never legally surrendered her parental rights. More importantly, we have documents proving that the initial capital used by your father to buy his first commercial woodworking shop thirty years ago was secured using Maria’s sole family inheritance as collateral. Legally speaking, Thompson Global was built on the back of Maria's stolen property. Every penny you have made since is fruit of the poisoned tree."
I felt the ground shift beneath my feet. Dad's first shop? Dad had always told us he saved every penny from working extra shifts at the sawmill.
"That's a lie," Sophie stepped in Vance's face. "Get out of our building before I have security throw you out the window."
"Feel free," Vance shrugged. "The press is waiting outside. Every second you deny your mother her rightful due, your investors lose confidence. You have forty-eight hours to settle for one billion dollars, or we file for a full corporate audit. And trust me... an audit will bring all of Robert Thompson's old secrets to light."
After Vance left, I immediately drove to Dad's house in upstate New York. It was a modest, beautiful wooden home he had built with his own hands, far away from the noise of the city.
When I walked into the living room, Dad was sitting by the fireplace, staring into the flickering flames, looking older than I had ever seen him.
"Dad," I said gently, sitting beside him. "Vance came to the office today. He mentioned your first shop in Ohio. He claimed... he claimed Maria's family money funded it."
Dad closed his eyes deeply. A tear traced the deep lines on his face.
"Dad, please," I pleaded. "Talk to me. Is there something you didn't tell us?"
"I loved her, Ava," Dad whispered, his voice trembling with an agonizing weight. "I loved your mother more than life itself. But love makes you blind to the monsters standing right in front of you."
"Did she fund the shop?"
"No," Dad looked up, his eyes suddenly piercing. "Her family was penniless. But Maria... Maria had a secret life. Before she left us, she got involved with dangerous men. Men in Chicago. She used our home to stash something that didn't belong to her."
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My heart pounded against my ribs. "What did she stash, Dad?"
"Stolen bonds," Dad confessed, his voice breaking. "Millions of dollars in untraceable bearer bonds belonging to the Moretti crime syndicate. When they tracked the bonds to our house, Maria panicked. She didn't abandon you because she was tired of being poor, Ava... She used you three as leverage. She traded you to the syndicate to buy her own freedom!"
