Chapter 4 - Desperate Measures
The weeks following the Father's Day reunion were chaos for the Camden family. Franklin tried everything. He called old buddies in the banking sector, looked for legal loopholes, and even tried to find dirt on Maris’s software and accounting firm to launch a counter-suit.
But Maris had been meticulous. Every loophole had been welded shut before she ever stepped onto that lawn.
One evening, Maris was working late in her high-rise office overlooking downtown Boise. The glass walls reflected the glowing city lights. Her assistant knocked on the door, looking nervous.
"Maris? Your mother is downstairs. She doesn't have an appointment, but she's refusing to leave."
Maris paused, her pen hovering over a contract. She took a slow, deep breath. "Send her up."
Eleanor Camden walked into the office looking older than her years. The fierce, untouchable matriarch who always stood silently behind her husband looked small against the minimalist, modern decor of Maris’s corporate headquarters.
"Maris," her mother started, her voice cracked. "Please. You have to stop this. Your father isn't sleeping. He's taking heart medication. Colton and Derek... they don't know how to do anything else. You're destroying this family."
Maris stood up, walking over to the floor-to-ceiling window. "I didn't destroy this family, Mom. I just stopped pretending it wasn't already broken. Did you ever ask Dad why he didn't sleep when I was working eighteen-hour days? Did you ever look at my empty chair at Christmas and care?"
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"We thought you wanted space!" Eleanor defended weakly.
"I wanted a father," Maris said, turning around, her eyes shining with unshed tears but her posture rigid. "I wanted a family that didn't treat me like a stain on their perfect canvas. I won't change the terms, Mom. But I will promise you one thing: I won't let you go homeless. You will always have a roof over your head. But Franklin's empire is over."
