Chapter 3 - Unraveling the Web of Lies
The silence in the office was deafening. Vanessa stood up, mumbling an excuse about a meeting, and practically bolted out the door, leaving behind a cloud of expensive perfume and palpable cowardice.
Daniel sank back into his chair, running a trembling hand through his hair. "Mom, you don't understand the whole story. Claire and I... we drifted apart. It wasn't working anymore."
"Drifted apart?" Margaret’s voice echoed off the glass walls. "Is that what you call cutting off the electricity, hiding your bank statements, and leaving your nine-year-old son to look after his sick sisters while his mother breaks her back trying to figure out how to buy groceries?"
"I was going to sort it out!" Daniel snapped defensively, his voice cracking. "I was going to set up a separate apartment and talk to them when the time was right."
"When the time was right?" Margaret scoffed bitterly. "You had three weeks, Daniel. You had three weeks to be a father, and instead, you chose to be a coward. You lied to me. You lied to your wife. And worst of all, you lied to those innocent children who still wait by the window for you every single night."
Daniel looked down at his desk, unable to meet his mother's eyes. "What do you want me to do, Mom? Turn back time? It's over."
"Oh, it's over, all right," Margaret said, pulling a folded document from her designer handbag and slamming it onto the desk right in front of him. "Just not the way you think."
Daniel blinked, looking down at the papers. "What is this?"
"That," Margaret said smoothly, "is a copy of the emergency financial injunction and property freeze that my corporate lawyer filed twenty minutes ago while I was waiting in the lobby. Your corporate accounts, your personal savings, and your assets are locked down until the courts review your abandonment of dependents."
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Daniel’s head jerked up in sheer horror. "You did what?"
"You forgot whose family taught you everything you know about business, Daniel," Margaret said, turning toward the door with a cold, unforgiving smile. "And you forgot that I never, ever tolerate a cheat."
