Chapter 8 - The Desperate Call
Three weeks later.
I was sitting in the newly renovated executive office of Vega Holdings when my personal phone rang. The number was unlisted, but I recognized the prefix.
I answered it, setting it to speakerphone. "Amanda."
"Amanda... please don't hang up," Richard’s voice came through the speaker, sounding ragged, thin, and entirely broken. The arrogant executive who had sipped bourbon by my fireplace was completely gone. "The bank foreclosed on the Polanco apartment. Brooke left with the baby... she went back to her parents in Guadalajara. My mother is living in a small rented room. I’m staying at a motel near the docks, Amanda. The legal fees are eating everything I have left."
"You should have thought about the legal fees before you stole three hundred thousand dollars from the payroll, Richard," I said, my voice flat.
"I can pay it back!" he cried, his voice cracking. "Just give me a job at the firm. Anything. A supervisor role in the warehouse. I know the shipping schedules. Don't let my father's name be dragged through the mud like this."
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"Your father's name was clean until you used it as an excuse to treat my son like dirt, Richard," I said. "You told Ethan he didn't belong in your family. Now you don't belong in this corporate structure. The court date is next Tuesday. I suggest you find a public defender who works cheap."
I pressed the red button, ending the call before he could speak another word.
