Chapter 5 - The Vanished Gold
"That's enough," Detective Miller declared, stepping forward from behind my attorney. He pulled out a pair of heavy steel handcuffs.
"Wait! Officer, you don't understand!" Mason panicked, scrambling backward away from the table, knocking his chair over. "It's a family misunderstanding! Ethan gave us those shares! The gold belonged to our father!"
"Your father died twelve years ago with forty thousand dollars in debt, Mason," I said, my voice cold as iron. "Daphne and I paid off his debts. Every dollar in that safe was earned by MedVance Systems. Every gold bar was purchased through my private investment account."
Detective Miller grabbed Mason’s arm, twisting it behind his back, and clicked the handcuffs around his wrists.
"Mason Vance," Detective Miller announced, "you are under arrest for grand larceny, corporate forgery, commercial burglary, and extortion."
"Mom! Do something! Call our lawyer!" Mason screamed as he was forced down onto the boardroom table.
Rosalind tried to rush toward the exit doors, but the second female officer stepped smoothly into her path, drawing her own set of handcuffs.
"Rosalind Vance," the officer declared. "You are under arrest as a co-conspirator to grand larceny, corporate burglary, and felony child endangerment and assault causing bodily harm to a pregnant woman."
"Get your filthy hands off me!" Rosalind shrieked, thrashing wildly, her polished demeanor completely evaporating into unhinged madness. "I am his mother! In our family, what belongs to the son belongs to the mother! He owes me his life! I gave birth to him!"
"You gave birth to me," I said, walking up until I stood two feet from her trembling, handcuffed form. "But Daphne gave me a future. And you tried to kill it."
"Ethan... son... please!" Rosalind wept, her fake tears finally spilling over her wrinkled cheeks as she realized the horror of her situation. "I was just trying to help Mason! He owes two million dollars to loan sharks in Los Angeles! They threatened to break his legs! I had to get the money!"
The room fell into an absolute, suffocating quiet.
I looked at my brother, whose face had completely drained of blood at his mother's sudden confession.
"You stole from my wife to pay off your gambling debts?" I asked Mason softly.
Mason kept his head bowed, unable to look me in the eye.
"Take them away," I said to the officers.
May you like
As the police marched my mother and brother down the executive hallway in chains, surrounded by news reporters who had gathered outside the lobby, I turned to the board of directors.
"Gentlemen," I said, taking my seat at the head of the table. "Let us begin the real meeting."
