Chapter 8 - The Fall of the House of Thaddius
Cresa returned to Thaddius with my ultimatum. For a week, my father’s pride kept him from signing the agreement. He tried to raise funds from old friends, but my influence in the business community had effectively blacklisted him. No one would lend to a man who had crossed the state’s newest logistics tycoon.
Finally, on the eve of the foreclosure, the signed documents arrived at my lawyer’s office.
Thaddius and Cresa had signed away the deed to their beautiful home.
The very next day, I hired a moving crew to pack up all their expensive, luxurious furniture from the upper floors and put it into storage. I replaced it with cheap, basic plastic furniture and moved them down into the damp, cold basement.
I hired a property management company to oversee them, ensuring they followed every rule I had been forced to follow. They were now tenants in their own former home, living beneath the feet of a property manager who had no pity for them.
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Declan, left with no family fortune to parasite off of, was forced to declare personal bankruptcy. He took a job as a low-level warehouse stocker—ironically, at one of the Vance Global distribution centers. He spent his days lifting heavy boxes of medical supplies, earning minimum wage under supervisors who knew exactly who he was and kept him on a very tight leash.
As for my ex-wife, Saskia, she quickly blew through the remainder of her dwindling funds. She tried to sue for more alimony, but Eleanor Sterling easily crushed her in court, securing a permanent restraining order that kept her far away from Lyra and me.
