Chapter 8 - Karma’s Complete Circle
With Julian in prison, the rest of the dominoes fell rapidly.
Chloe, unable to pay her college tuition or maintain her lifestyle, dropped out of school. With her social media presence permanently ruined by the viral coffee video, no legitimate company would hire her. She eventually took a night-shift job stocking shelves at a local 24-hour discount megastore—the very kind of store she had mocked all her life.
Eleanor tried one last desperate stunt.
She showed up at the gates of my private estate in the hills, screaming through the intercom system, begging me to withdraw the financial restitution claims against Julian so he wouldn't lose his future.
I walked down the long cobblestone driveway under an umbrella, stopping behind the high iron gates.
“Clara! Clara, my child!” Eleanor wept through the bars, reaching out her wrinkled, manicured hands. “Please! Have mercy! I’m an old woman! I have nothing left! They took my house, my car, my friends... everyone laughs at me!”
“You called me trash, Eleanor,” I said through the gate, my voice steady and cold. “You said an uneducated girl like me would always be trash.”
“I was wrong! I was stupid!” she sobbed, falling to her knees on the wet mud outside my gate. “You’re brilliant! You’re powerful! Please, just give me a allowance... just enough to live comfortably! I’m your mother-in-law!”
“You were never my mother,” I replied softly. “You were a bully who got lucky because I was too patient. You treated people based on their money and clothes. Now, you have neither.”
I turned my back on her.
“Wait! Clara, don't leave me here in the mud!” she screamed, banging her fists against the iron bars.
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“Security will have you removed for harassment in two minutes,” I said over my shoulder. “Goodbye, Eleanor.”
As I walked back up toward my mansion, the sound of her wailing faded into the rain.
