Chapter 2 - The Hospital and The Truth

The snow had stopped falling by early afternoon, leaving the affluent Denver suburb blanketed in pristine, sparkling white. The silence of the neighborhood was abruptly broken by the rumble of two massive moving trucks pulling into the driveway of my estate.

When Felix and Eudora arrived in their luxury SUV an hour later—having been formally stripped of their executive titles and escorted from the building by federal agents—they found a team of movers carrying out antique vases, expensive paintings, and designer clothing, dumping them unceremoniously onto the snow-covered front lawn.

I was standing on the porch, leaning against the wooden railing right where I had found Giselle nearly dead the night before. I held a steaming mug of black coffee, watching them pull up.

Felix threw the car into park and leaped out, his face a violent shade of purple. Eudora was right behind him, hyperventilating.

"What are you doing?!" Felix roared, sprinting up the walkway. "These are my things! You can't just throw us out onto the street!"

"Actually, he can," said a voice from the side of the house. Two local sheriff’s deputies stepped into view, their hands resting casually on their utility belts. "Mr. Thorne, we’ve reviewed the emergency injunction signed by the federal judge this morning. This property belongs solely to Dylan Thorne. You have been illegally squatting here."

Eudora let out a theatrical sob, dropping to her knees in the snow. "Dylan, please! I’m your mother! You can't do this to us! Where will we go? We have nothing!"

I took a slow sip of my coffee, the heat warming my chest. I looked down at the woman who had watched my wife shiver with a glass of wine in her hand.

"You have exactly what you gave Giselle," I replied coldly. "Nothing. But I am infinitely more generous than you. I’m giving you ten minutes to pack one suitcase each. Whatever fits in that bag, you can take. Everything else stays, to be liquidated to repay the money you embezzled."

"My jewelry!" Eudora shrieked, pointing to a velvet box a mover had just set on the grass. "That necklace is worth fifty thousand dollars!"

"Bought with funds from a stolen corporate account," I corrected her. "It belongs to the estate. Ten minutes, Eudora. The clock is ticking."

Felix tried to charge up the porch steps, raising his fist. "I will destroy you, you ungrateful—"

Before he could even swing, the two deputies tackled him, forcing him face-first into a snowbank. They locked his hands in cuffs as he sputtered and cursed.

"Assaulting a homeowner while trespassing, resisting an officer," the taller deputy noted casually. "That's a quick trip to the county jail."

"Let him go," I told the deputies, my voice flat. "He’s not worth the paperwork yet. Let them pack their single bag. I want them off my property."

The deputies hauled Felix to his feet, removing the cuffs but pushing him roughly toward his wife. Stripped of his power, his wealth, and his dignity, my father suddenly looked small, frail, and pathetic.

They scrambled through the pile of items on the lawn, fighting each other over what to pack in their two allowed suitcases. Eudora cried over a pair of designer shoes, while Felix frantically stuffed cheap burner phones and whatever loose cash he could find into his duffel.

When their ten minutes were up, the deputies escorted them to the edge of the property line.

"The SUV stays," I called out as Felix reached for the driver's side door. "Company car. Hand over the keys."

Felix stared at me, his eyes filled with absolute hatred. With trembling hands, he tossed the keys into the snow. Without a vehicle, without their stolen millions, my parents were forced to drag their suitcases down the long, icy road on foot, slipping in the slush as the wealthy neighbors watched from their windows.