Chapter 7 - The Desperate Play
Richard Sterling looked at the data on the screen, then looked at his client’s terrified expression. He slowly closed his briefcase, stood up, and adjusted his tie.
"My firm is withdrawing from representation effective immediately," Sterling said, not even looking at Eleanor as he turned and walked out of the boardroom, leaving my mother and sister completely isolated at the end of the long mahogany table.
"Avery, please!" Eleanor sobbed, her aristocratic mask shattering into a thousand jagged pieces. She reached across the table, her hands shaking. "You can't do this to your own mother! We are your blood! I gave birth to you!"
"And you left me in an emergency room while my son was screaming," I said, my voice cold, steady, and utterly devoid of remorse. "Sign the waiver, Eleanor. Or spend your sixties in a federal penitentiary."
Chloe grabbed her mother’s arm, her voice high and panicked. "Mom, just sign it! I can't go to jail! I have an audition next week! Sign the paper!"
With a trembling hand, Eleanor took the gold pen provided by the board’s secretary and scribbled her name at the bottom of the non-disclosure and asset waiver document. She threw the pen at me, her eyes burning with a deep, impotent hatred.
"You are a monster, Avery," she whispered. "Your father would be ashamed of you."
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"My father died because he worked himself to death trying to satisfy your bottomless greed, Eleanor," I replied, closing my laptop. "The difference between him and me is that I survived you."
The security guards ushered them out of the building for the final time. As the doors clicked shut, Grandfather Arthur reached over, placing his large, warm hand over mine. "The board votes are unanimous, Avery. Welcome to the chair."
