Chapter 4 - UNFAIR TRADES
The word jail hung in the air like a suffocating fog. The family members who had been laughing just ten minutes prior were now backing away toward the front door, realizing they were witness to a structural demolition of the Vance family dynamic.
“You have two choices, Ryan,” Thomas said, tapping his finger against the wooden table.
Ryan looked like a trapped animal, his eyes darting from the window to the door, realizing there was no quick joke, no charming smile that could pull him out of this abyss. “What choices?”
“Option one,” Thomas said, pointing to the documents. “I hand these files over to the District Attorney’s office tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. Forgery, wire fraud, grand larceny. You will be arrested before noon.”
Evelyn let out a muffled scream, sinking into a chair and burying her face in her hands. “Thomas, no! You can't ruin his life!”
“He ruined his own life,” Thomas said coldly, without looking at her. “Option two: You sign the confession and asset forfeiture agreement inside this folder right now.”
Ryan stepped up to the table, his fingers trembling as he turned the page. “Asset forfeiture? What assets? I don't have anything!”
“You have your sports car,” Thomas noted. “You have your interest in the commercial property downtown. You will sign them all over to a legal trust established exclusively for Ethan’s future education and security. You will sign over your rights to any inheritance from this family. And then, you will leave this house, and you will never speak to my grandson again.”
Giana stood frozen, holding Ethan tightly against her side. She looked at her father in disbelief. For thirty years, Thomas had been a shadow in her life—a man who retreated to his study whenever Ryan threw a fit, a man who swallowed his pride to maintain a fake peace. Seeing him now, standing as an unyielding wall of justice, felt surreal.
“You’re stripping me of everything?” Ryan’s voice rose to a shrill, hysterical pitch. “For what? Because I dropped a stupid plastic toy?”
“No,” Giana broke her silence, stepping forward to stand beside her father. “Not because of the toy, Ryan. Because you think everyone around you is disposable. You think you can break people and walk away laughing.”
Ryan glared at her with pure hatred. “You set this up, didn't you? You’ve been whispering in Dad’s ear!”
“She didn't say a word to me,” Thomas said softly. “Giana has spent her whole life suffering your abuse in silence because she thought that’s what love required. But today, she stood up to you to protect her son. She showed more courage in five minutes than I showed in thirty years. She reminded me of what a parent is supposed to do.”
Thomas picked up the black fountain pen and uncapped it, holding it out to Ryan.
“Sign the papers, Ryan. Or I call the police right now.”
Ryan stared at the pen. The veins in his neck were bulging. He looked at his mother, but Evelyn was staring at the floor, finally paralyzed by the reality of what her favoritism had created. He looked at his relatives, but every single one of them looked away.
With a harsh curse, Ryan snatched the pen from Thomas’s hand. He shoved the documents into position and aggressively scribbled his signature across the bottom of four separate pages.
He threw the pen onto the table with such force that black ink splattered across the white paper.
“There!” Ryan hissed, his face twisted in rage. “You got what you wanted! You stole my life from me!”
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“You gave it away,” Thomas corrected quietly, closing the folder and locking it inside his briefcase. “Now get out of my house.”
Ryan grabbed his designer jacket off the rack, shoved past his crying mother, and slammed the heavy front door behind him so hard that the family picture frames along the hallway rattled against the drywall.
