Chapter 11 - The Desperate Phone Call From A Jail Cell That Marked The End Of An Era
Three days after Richard Sterling left Hawthorne House with the preliminary partnership agreement, my private office phone rang at precisely eight o'clock in the morning.
I was reviewing quarterly logistics spreadsheets when my executive assistant buzzed through.
“Ms. Hawthorne, there is a collect call holding on line three from the municipal detention center downtown,” my assistant said cautiously.
“The caller is listed as Vanessa Hawthorne.”
I paused, my finger hovering over the mouse.
For twenty-eight years, Vanessa had never once called me for anything except to demand a favor, criticize my clothes, or order me around like a servant.
“Accept the call,” I instructed calmly.
A sharp electronic beep echoed through my desk speaker, followed by the harsh, metallic hum of a holding facility background noise.
“Claire? Claire, are you there? Please tell me you’re there!”
Vanessa’s voice sounded high, frantic, and entirely unhinged, stripped of all its usual arrogant polish.
She was sobbing uncontrollably, her words tumbling over each other in a desperate panic.
“The police transferred me from holding to county jail this morning!” Vanessa wailed through the speaker.
“They denied my bail request, Claire! They said because of the forged notary seals and the wire fraud charges, I’m a flight risk!”
“Mom and Dad won't even answer my calls! Dad is holed up in some cheap motel down by the highway, and Mom is threatening to check herself into a psychiatric clinic!”
“Please, Claire! You have the power to drop the charges!”
“You’re the head of the company! You can tell the district attorney it was all a terrible family misunderstanding!”
I leaned back in my leather chair, letting the silence stretch out for a few long seconds before I spoke.
“A misunderstanding, Vanessa?” I asked, my voice terrifyingly calm.
“You forged financial documents, attempted to steal thirty-five million dollars from the Sterling family, and committed wire fraud.”
“And on top of all that, you publicly humiliated me in front of two hundred people because you thought I was beneath your social standing.”
“I didn't put you in that jail cell, Vanessa.”
“Your own greed did.”
“Claire, please! I’m your sister!” she screamed, her voice cracking into a ragged, pathetic shriek.
“We share the same blood! You can’t do this to me! I’ll lose everything! My friends, my social standing, my entire life!”
“You never cared about me as a sister,” I replied softly.
“You treated me like a piece of furniture you could shove out of your way whenever it suited you.”
“Well, the furniture just changed the locks on the house, Vanessa.”
“Have a nice life in county jail.”
I pressed the disconnect button on my desk phone, cutting off her hysterical screaming mid-sentence.
I sat there in the quiet stillness of my office, watching the morning sun break fully over the glittering city skyline.
The parasites were gone.
May you like
The debt was paid.
And the Hawthorne empire finally belonged to the person who built it.
