Chapter 6 - The Fall of the House of Vance
While Audrey prepared for her journey to paradise, the remnants of the Vance family were discovering the brutal reality of financial exile.
Stripped of their penthouse, their luxury cars, and their social standing, Dominic, Victoria, and Natalie found themselves crammed into a two-star residential motel on the seedier side of the city. The velvet ropes of high society had snapped shut, leaving them outside in the cold.
Victoria was pacing the narrow strip of worn carpet between the two double beds, her hands wringing a designer silk scarf that was now her most valuable remaining possession.
“This is a nightmare!” Victoria wailed, her mascara running in dark streaks down her cheeks. “I had to wait in line at a public laundromat this morning! People were staring at me! And the grocer down the street refused to accept my expired store card! Dominic, you have to do something! Call your friends! Call your fraternity brothers!”
Dominic was sitting on the edge of the mattress, staring blankly at the peeling floral wallpaper. He hadn't shaved in three days. His expensive suit was crumpled into a ball in the corner.
“Mom, none of my friends are answering my calls,” Dominic said, his voice flat, devoid of emotion. “The moment Vance Technologies collapsed, my phone number became radioactive. Nobody wants to be associated with a man who owes four million dollars in corporate debt and is blacklisted by Charles Brooks.”
“Well, go see Audrey’s father!” Natalie chimed in from the corner where she was scrolling frantically through her dead smartphone screen, praying for a signal that would never come. “Beg him! Tell him we’re family! Remind him that Leo is his grandson!”
“His grandson?” Dominic let out a hollow, bitter laugh that grated on their nerves. “Natalie, do you still not understand? Charles Brooks doesn't care about our family name. To him, we are insects. He gave us everything, and I threw it away because I was too arrogant to see that the woman I married was a queen pretending to be a peasant.”
Just then, a heavy knock echoed at the motel door.
Victoria gasped, smoothing her wrinkled blouse. “Is it a lawyer? Is it an investor? Maybe someone came to their senses!”
Dominic stood up slowly and pulled the door open.
Standing on the threshold wasn't an investor or a lawyer. It was the motel manager, holding a clipboard and looking thoroughly unimpressed.
“Mr. Vance?” the manager said flatly. “Your prepayment for this week just bounced. Credit card declined for insufficient funds. You have thirty minutes to clear your belongings out of room 204, or I’m calling the tow truck for that clunker in the parking lot.”
The door clicked shut in his face.
Victoria stared at her son, her face turning pale. “Dominic... what do we do?”
Dominic walked over to the window, parting the cheap plastic blinds just enough to look out at the grey, indifferent street below. A city bus rumbled past, its brakes hissing as it pulled to a stop at the corner.
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For a fraction of a second, Dominic thought he saw a flash of a pink hospital robe and a newborn bundle through the tinted window. But it was just a ghost of his own making. He dropped the blinds, turned to his mother and sister, and said the only thing left to say:
“Pack your bags. We’re taking the bus.”
