Chapter 3 - The Gathering Storm
By 6:00 PM that evening, David had brought Emma to stay at my two-bedroom apartment.
The girls were in Ava's room, building an elaborate castle out of wooden blocks and laughing quietly, oblivious to the legal and financial hurricane gathering in my living room.
David sat on my couch, staring blankly at his phone. He had tried calling Jessica forty times. Every single call went straight to voicemail.
"She's at her mother's house," David said bitterly, setting his phone on the coffee table. "That's where she always goes when she burns something down. Her mother, Evelyn, has enabled her whole life. Evelyn probably helped her plan the whole thing."
"David, you need to call your senior partner right now," I said firmly, handing him a glass of water. "If Jessica used that corporate card, the fraud alert will hit their compliance department on Monday morning. You have to report it before they discover it themselves."
Before David could respond, my phone buzzed on the counter. It was an unknown number. I hit speakerphone.
"Rachel?" a sharp, aristocratic voice piped through the speaker. It was Evelyn Vance—Jessica’s mother.
"Evelyn," I said coldly. "I assume Jessica is with you."
"I am standing right beside my daughter, who is currently sobbing her eyes out after the barbaric way you and David humiliated her today!" Evelyn barked. "To have security guards drag a mother away from her own child's birthday party? You people are monsters!"
"Your daughter stole fifteen hundred dollars from my bank account, Evelyn," I fired back, my voice steady as steel. "She slapped a plate out of my eight-year-old's hands, locked her outside in the hallway, and used David's corporate credit card to commit financial fraud."
There was a brief pause on the line, but Evelyn didn't miss a beat. "Jessica was simply reallocating funds that were rightfully owed to her for organizing the event! As for your daughter, she is an illegitimately raised child who has no place in high-society family functions! You brought her there specifically to cause a scene!"
David snatched the phone from my hand, his voice roaring with a rage I had never heard from my gentle brother in my entire life.
"Evelyn! Listen to me very carefully!" David shouted into the mic. "Jessica is stripped of all access to our joint bank accounts as of five minutes ago. If she sets foot near my house, my office, or my daughter, I will have her arrested for grand theft, child endangerment, and corporate credit card fraud! Do you understand me?!"
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"You wouldn't dare, David!" Evelyn scoffed. "My family built the financial network that keeps your little architecture firm alive! You cross us, and you won't have a job by Friday!"
"Try me," David snarled, and slammed the end-call button.
