Chapter 3 - The Meeting of Ghosts
The restaurant was downtown, an exclusive spot where my mother, Eleanor, used to brag about having a standing reservation. I wore a tailored black suit that concealed my knee brace, and I didn't use my crutches. I forced myself to walk with a cane, an affectation that made me look more regal than broken.
When I walked in, they were already at the table. My father looked ten years older, his expensive suit hanging off his frame. My mother was nervously checking her phone, and Chloe... Chloe looked bored. She hadn't changed.
They didn't see me until I was ten feet away.
"Vivienne?" my mother gasped, dropping her wine glass. It didn't break, but the red liquid spilled across the white linen, looking like a fresh wound.
"Hello, Mother," I said, pulling out the chair opposite them. I didn't wait for an invitation.
My father’s eyes narrowed, his face hardening into that familiar mask of arrogance. "What are you doing here? This is a private business meeting. We’re meeting with the representative from Vanguard Capital."
I smiled. It was a cold, thin expression. "I am the representative, Dad."
The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. My father blinked, his brain clearly struggling to reconcile the daughter he’d discarded with the woman who held the deed to his existence.
"You?" he scoffed, his voice trembling. "That’s impossible. You were a sergeant on a medical discharge. You had five thousand dollars in your bank account."
"And then I decided that my leg was worth more than a boat," I said. I pulled a document from my folder and slid it across the table. "You’re in default, Richard. The yacht is already impounded. Your primary business accounts are frozen. And the pension fund you embezzled from? I’ve turned over the evidence to the Feds."
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Chloe let out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "Is this a joke? You think you can just come in here and—"
"Shut up, Chloe," I snapped. The command was so sharp, so military, that she actually recoiled. "You’re not at a party anymore. You’re a liability in a bankruptcy suit."
