Chapter 5 - The Fall of the Sons
With no money and no executive titles, Colton and Derek quickly disintegrated. Without the corporate credit cards to fund their lifestyles, their country club memberships were revoked, and their high-society friends vanished overnight.
In a desperate bid to make quick money, Derek tried to sell off proprietary logistics software that Maris had actually patented years prior during her early tech days—software that Camden Logistics had been using under a free family license.
Maris's legal team caught it within hours.
A cease-and-desist letter backed by a massive copyright infringement lawsuit landed on Derek's doorstep. Panicked, Derek turned on Colton, accusing his older brother of orchestrating the financial fraud that ruined the company in the first place.
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The two brothers got into a physical altercation at a local bar, a scene that made the front page of the local business journal. The "Camden Boys," once praised by Franklin as "built men, real men," were now the laughingstock of the city's business community.
Franklin sat in his darkening living room, reading the paper, realizing that the sons he had poured all his pride into were nothing more than empty shells. The daughter he had cast aside was the only one who possessed the true Camden steel.
