Chapter 3 - The Golden Boy’s Web
Evelyn gasped, rising to her feet and attempting to smooth down her ruined silk blouse as the creditors quickly retreated to their trucks. "You bought our house, Lucas, oh thank heaven, we are saved, we can move back inside and forget this dreadful nightmare!"
"You misunderstand your legal standing, Evelyn," I said coldly, motioning my private security team to block the front door. "I bought the debt, which makes me the sole owner of this land; you and Edward are merely trespassing squatters on my corporate asset."
Edward staggered up the steps, his face flushed with an ugly mixture of humiliation and desperate outrage. "How can you speak to your parents like that after everything we gave you, Lucas?"
"What did you give me, Edward?" I asked, turning to face him with an icy stare that made the older man shrink back against the brick wall. "You gave me hand-me-down clothes, cold leftovers, and a boot crashing through my state championship trophy while Julian wore cashmere paid for with my college fund."
Evelyn burst into fresh sobs, clutching her chest. "Julian told us he was investing our money into a medical biotechnology conglomerate that would make us hundreds of millions, he promised us a villa in Saint-Tropez!"
"Julian was running a multi-jurisdictional Ponzi scheme from a luxury penthouse in Miami," my attorney interjected, opening a thick leather portfolio. "He used your house, your life insurance policies, and your grandfather's ancestral farm as collateral to borrow funds from a European crime syndicate."
Edward’s knees buckled, and he collapsed heavily onto the porch bench, staring into space with vacant, bloodshot eyes. "He said the contracts were standard corporate guarantees; he swore on his father's grave that we would never be liable for a single dollar."
"Julian never cared about his father's grave, and he never cared about you," I replied, pulling a pair of black leather gloves from my pocket. "He viewed you as two gullible, arrogant fools who were so desperate to live through his borrowed glory that you would sign your own death warrants."
"Where is he now?" Evelyn cried, wringing her hands in agony. "Lucas, you have billions, you have private security, you have to find your cousin and make him give our money back!"
"Julian is currently celebrating his latest haul aboard a chartered yacht off the coast of Key West," I answered, looking at my phone screen. "He believes he has outsmarted the entire family, left you to rot on the street, and secured his permanent escape to the Cayman Islands."
Edward looked up at me, tears streaming down his wrinkled face. "Can you stop him, Lucas, can you bring him to justice?"
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"I am not just going to bring him to justice, Edward," I said, turning toward my waiting convoy. "I am going to dismantle every luxury, every lie, and every illusion he ever possessed until he is begging for the mercy he never showed me."
"And as for you two," I added, looking back at the couple on the porch. "You have exactly forty-eight hours to pack your clothes into cardboard boxes before my demolition crew levels this house to build a public youth sports complex."
