Chapter 6 - TOTAL ANNIHILATIONThe fall of Ryan Whitaker was immediate and total. But for Emily, the debt was not yet fully settled.
There were still the people who had nurtured the toxicity: her own parents and her sister.
The next morning, Emily sat in the high-rise office of the Sterling Trust. Across the desk sat her parents and Ashley. They looked utterly broken, stripped of their vanity, their high-society status gone, their names blackened across every social network.
"The house goes up for public auction on Monday," Emily’s asset management lawyer announced dryly, sliding foreclosure papers across the table. "The debts accrued by Mr. Vance’s failed investments are being collected immediately."
Emily’s mother collapsed into a chair, crying hysterically.
"Emily... please..." her mother sobbed. "We have nowhere to go! They’re foreclosing on the house! Ashley’s bridal store closed down overnight! People are throwing trash at our front door!"
Emily stared at her mother, completely unmoved.
"When I came back five years ago, pregnant and scared, where did you tell me to go?" Emily asked softly.
Her mother choked on her words, unable to answer.
"You told me to rent a basement apartment on the outskirts of town," Emily reminded her, every word sharp as glass. "You told me you were ashamed to let your friends see me. You told me I ruined the family image."
"We were wrong!" her father cried out, bowing his head in shame. "Emily, I was a terrible father! Pushing you into that water... I haven't slept in three days! Please, spare us from total ruin!"
"I spared you from prison," Emily said cold. "That was my gift to you for giving birth to me. But your lifestyle? Your luxury? That was built on pride and cruelty. And it ends today."
Ashley stepped forward, her hands shaking, her eyes wide with desperation.
"Emily... what about me?" Ashley whispered. "I'm your younger sister! I was influenced by Ryan! I was stupid!"
"You weren't stupid, Ashley," Emily said, looking at her sister with pity. "You were arrogant. You enjoyed watching me sit near the restrooms. You enjoyed watching Daisy draw with crayons while you wore a dress worth thousands."
Emily stood up, pulling a plane ticket from her folder and placing it on the table.
"One-way ticket to a small town in Oregon," Emily said. "A modest two-bedroom apartment has been paid for six months. A entry-level job at a local logistics warehouse has been secured for you, Ashley. You will work for your living, like I did."
Ashley looked at the ticket as if it were poison. "A warehouse?! You want me to work in a warehouse?!"
"Take it or leave it," Emily said, leaning over the desk. "If you take it, you learn what real life is. If you leave it, you can sleep on the streets of Scottsdale when the bank locks your doors at 5:00 PM today."
Ashley fell back, grasping the ticket in trembling hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
Her father looked up with hollow eyes. "And us, Emily? What about your mother and me?"
"You have your pensions," Emily stated flatly. "You will live quietly, away from society, far away from my daughter. You will never contact Daisy again. If you step within five hundred yards of her school, my legal team will file an immediate restraining order that will land you in jail."
Emily walked past them toward the heavy mahogany doors of the office.
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"You spent your whole lives trying to keep up appearances," Emily said, taking one last look at her ruined family. "Now, you have nothing left to prove."
She opened the door and walked out, leaving the sound of her mother’s bitter weeping echoing in the empty room.
