Chapter 5 - SEEDS OF VENGEANCE
The ride back to my private estate in the suburbs of Nashville was silent. Ethan drove his black SUV, his knuckles white on the steering wheel, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles twitched.
I sat in the passenger seat, wrapped in a warm cashmere blanket Ethan had retrieved from his car, sipping hot tea from a thermos. The cheap secondhand shoes lay at my feet, dripping onto a rubber mat. Beside them sat the canvas tote bag.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Ethan whispered finally, his voice thick with emotion as we pulled up to the security gates of my residence. "I was a fool. I brought that venomous family into our lives. I almost married her."
"You didn't know, Ethan," I said gently, touching his arm. "People like the Mitchells spend years perfecting their masks. They show you sweetness because you hold the keys to power. I had to pull the mask off myself, because I couldn't bear to see my son trapped in a marriage built on deception."
"I ruined everything," he muttered, staring out at the rain that had finally begun to fall over the city.
"You ruined nothing," I replied firmly. "You saved yourself."
What Ethan didn't know—and what the Mitchells had yet to realize—was that the afternoon's drama was far from over.
While Ethan helped me inside and made sure I was dry and comfortable, the Mitchell family was gathering in the boardroom of Mitchell Capital in downtown Nashville.
George Mitchell was pacing the floor, his face red with rage, tearing at his tie. Patricia was weeping hysterically in a leather armchair, while Vanessa sat at the end of the mahogany table, her eyes red, her pristine silk dress ruined by rain and tears.
"We are ruined!" George slammed his fist onto the table. "Carter Global was underwriting our forty-million-dollar line of credit! Without their backing, the bank will foreclose on our holdings by the end of the month! We will be bankrupt!"
"It's that old hag's fault!" Vanessa spat, her tears turning to pure hatred. "She set me up! She dressed like a homeless tramp just to trap me! Who does that?!"
"Shut up, Vanessa!" George screamed. "You poured water on the most powerful woman in the financial sector! You ruined this family with your stupid, arrogant cruelty!"
Patricia looked up, wiping her eyes. "George... isn't there another way? What if we control the narrative? What if we go to the press first?"
George paused, his eyes narrowing. "What do you mean?"
"The old woman was trespassing on private property," Patricia said, her voice sharpening with cunning. "We have security footage of her walking onto the lawn uninvited. If we frame it as a crazy, obsessed stalker attacking our daughter at her betrothal party... if we put out a press release before Carter Global can react..."
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Vanessa’s eyes lit up with predatory hope. "Yes! We tell the media she threatened us! We say I used the hose in self-defense because she was aggressive! The public loves a story about a wealthy family being victimized by a lunatic!"
George pulled out his phone, his mind racing. "I'll call our PR firm right now. We destroy her credibility before she can drop the hammer on us."
