Chapter 4 - THE GALA OF RECKONINGThree days after the disaster at the Arlington Estate, my phone buzzed endlessly with frantic calls from my mother. I ignored every single one.
Instead, I sat in my top-floor corner office in downtown Washington D.C., reviewing financial documents forwarded by my legal team. What I discovered made my blood run cold.
It wasn't just that my parents favored Brittany. It was far darker.
According to bank records from four years ago, right before my eighteenth birthday, my father had opened a fraudulent offshore trust in my name using my Social Security number. They had dumped millions of dollars in toxic real-estate debt into my name, planning to declare bankruptcy under my legal identity once I turned eighteen—effectively ruining my financial life before it even started, all to keep Brittany’s trust fund pristine.
The stolen birthday party wasn't just a act of emotional cruelty. It was a distraction. While I was running out into the rain weeping, my father was finalizing the legal paperwork that transferred their failing debts onto my shoulders. They thought I was too young, too naive to ever figure it out.
"Miss Brooks," my assistant, Sarah, said over the intercom. "Your mother is downstairs in the lobby. She's causing a scene, claiming she won't leave until you see her."
I leaned back in my leather chair, a cold spark igniting in my chest. "Send her up."
Five minutes later, my mother burst into my office. Her designer clothes were rumpled, her makeup uneven. The poise she held for decades was completely shattered.
"Megan!" she cried, rushing toward my desk. "You have to help us! Julian cancelled the wedding! The bank froze your father’s accounts! They're threatening to seize the house!"
I didn't stand up. I didn't even look up from my tablet. "And why is that my problem?"
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"Because we are your parents!" she screamed, her voice cracking. "We raised you! We gave you a roof over your head! How can you be so cold-hearted?"
I slowly raised my eyes to meet hers. "You didn't raise me, Mom. You used me. Tell me about the $2.5 million line of credit you opened in my name when I was seventeen."
