Chapter 4 - The Golden Child’s Plea
At 8:00 PM, my phone rang again. This time, it wasn't Evelyn, Linda, or Travis.
It was Megan.
I stared at the glowing screen for several seconds. Out of all of them, Megan was the only one who hadn't directly insulted me that afternoon. But complicity wears many faces. For years, Megan had bathed in the spotlight of being the favored child, happily accepting my quiet sacrifices while never once standing up for me when Evelyn sharpened her tongue.
I swiped the screen and brought the phone to my ear.
“Megan.”
A ragged sob came across the line. “Claire? Oh God, Claire, please don't hang up.”
“I’m listening,” I said, keeping my tone strictly neutral.
“Derek… Derek is destroying the house,” Megan wept, her voice trembling with genuine terror. “He’s throwing things in the basement, packing bags. Mom is over here screaming at him. They won't tell me what’s happening! Claire, the baby won't stop kicking, my head feels like it’s going to explode. What did you do? Why is everyone saying you’re trying to ruin us?”
I closed my eyes, taking a steadying breath. “Megan, where are you right now?”
“I’m in the nursery,” she cried. “I locked the door. Claire, Derek told me that if we don't get that money by Monday, we’re going to lose the house. We’re going to lose everything. He said we might even go to prison. Why would he say that? You wouldn't send Derek to prison, would you? He’s the father of my baby!”
“Megan, listen to me very carefully,” I said, my voice firm and grounded. “Did you know that Mom and Derek took out a two-million-dollar loan in my name?”
Silence.
The sobbing abruptly paused.
“What?” Megan whispered.
“Did you know that Derek forged my signature on high-risk commercial paper to buy that Lake Geneva land?”
“No… no, Derek said the land was bought by an investment syndicate! He said he was just the managing partner!”
“The managing partner using my credit, my identity, and my life as collateral,” I said bluntly. “And today, Mom brought an escrow lawyer into your baby shower to ambush me for one hundred thousand dollars because Derek couldn't make the loan payment. If that money hadn't cleared, the bank was going to uncover the fraud.”
“I didn't know,” Megan gasped, her voice sounding small, stripped of all the polished vanity she usually projected. “Claire, I swear on my child’s life, I didn't know. Derek just told me you had finally decided to support the family. He told me you felt guilty for being distant and that the check was your way of making amends.”
A cold laugh escaped my throat. “Making amends for what, Megan? For existing? For not handing over my paycheck every time Derek made a bad stock pick?”
“Claire, please…”
“If you are truly innocent in this, Megan, you need to unlock that nursery door, grab your overnight bag, and leave that house immediately.”
“Where would I go?”
“Take a cab to the Palmer House Hilton downtown. I will book a suite under my corporate name. Do not tell Mom. Do not tell Derek. If you stay there, you are going to be in the splash zone when the federal authorities step in.”
“Federal?” Her voice broke into a high-pitched shriek. “Claire, you can’t do that to Mom! She’s your mother!”
There it was. Even in the face of criminal betrayal, the conditioning remained. Evelyn was the sun around which all planets were required to burn.
“She stopped being my mother the moment she used my social security number to commit felony fraud,” I said coldly. “The hotel room is yours if you want it. If you choose to stay and protect Derek, that is your decision. But Monday morning is coming, Megan. And nothing on earth is stopping what I have set in motion.”
I ended the call before she could reply.
Julian looked up from his laptop across the desk. “Her phone just pinged a cell tower three miles from here. She’s leaving the house.”
“Good,” I said quietly. “At least she has enough survival instinct left to save her child.”
“What about the rest of them?” Julian asked, pulling up the draft for the emergency injunction. “We have enough right here to obtain an ex-parte freeze on Derek’s corporate assets by 8:30 AM Monday. But Evelyn… Claire, your mother has accounts scattered across three local credit unions. She’s been liquidating her personal savings accounts over the last forty-eight hours.”
I stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the glowing grid of Chicago.
Evelyn wasn't trying to save Derek. She was preparing to run.
She knew the house of cards was falling. The one hundred thousand dollars from me was never meant to cure the loan. It was meant to buy her enough time to clear out her liquid assets and leave Derek holding the bag while she fled to her sister’s property in Naples, Florida.
May you like
“She’s not going anywhere,” I said, my voice deadly quiet. “Call the Cook County Chancery Division. We file the emergency petition tomorrow morning. And notify the private security detail at the Lake Geneva property. Nobody steps foot on that land.”
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