“Mrs. Elena, has the baby arrived yet and is everything going well with the birth and your health?” Mr. Henderson asked with a tone of genuine concern.
Elena swallowed hard and explained that Brandon had left her alone in the hospital so he could go out for a fancy dinner with his family. There was a long and heavy silence on the line before the lawyer asked if he should finally activate the legal protocol they had prepared.
“I want you to activate everything including the bank accounts, the credit cards, the vehicles, and all powers of attorney starting this very moment,” Elena commanded.
At ten thirty in the evening, while Brandon was posting photos of expensive drinks and Adelaide was smiling in front of a table full of seafood, Elena’s phone began to vibrate. It was Brandon calling her back, and when she answered, his voice no longer sounded arrogant but was filled with a sense of genuine panic.
“Elena, what exactly did you do to us because all of our cards are being declined and the van will not even start,” he stammered over the phone.
She looked out at the city lights of Maple Grove and realized that no one would ever believe the massive downfall that was about to happen.
“What do you mean when you say you have nothing left?” Elena asked while watching the cold glow of the city through her window.
Brandon was breathing heavily and explained that the valet told him the van was flagged as immobilized by a GPS tracking system.
“My father tried to pay for the dinner and his account is frozen, and now my mother is screaming because the country club canceled her membership,” he shouted.
Elena stroked her daughter’s back and told him that she had only done what she should have done a very long time ago. In the background, she could hear the furious voice of Adelaide calling her a gold digger and telling her to stop playing games with them.
Elena let out a brief laugh because they had called her that for years whenever they thought she was out of earshot. They saw her as an unremarkable orphan with no family name, but they never knew that she was the actual owner of the massive Summit Realty firm.
Her grandfather had built the business from scratch and left it to her on the condition that she never allowed an abuser to sign on her behalf. She had feigned modesty and lived without luxury to test their character, but she had documented every single moment of their cruelty along the way.
She had saved every message and recorded every audio of Adelaide demanding that Elena put her properties in Brandon’s name to show her obedience. She even had screenshots of Courtney mocking her and planning to pressure her into signing away her rights while she was weak from childbirth.
The worst part was that they never truly loved her, but instead they wanted to use the baby as a pretext to seize her entire inheritance. Attorney Henderson had been waiting for her final order, and Brandon’s decision to abandon her in the hospital was the final straw.
By ten twelve the administrative powers were revoked, and by ten eighteen all the cards linked to the firm were completely blocked. By ten twenty four the van was deactivated, and by ten thirty one the bank was notified of an internal investigation regarding financial embezzlement.
“Elena, my love, let us not make a big deal out of this because I was just tired and my mother pressured me to leave,” Brandon said while suddenly changing his tone to a soft plea.
“I know exactly what your mother is like, and more importantly, I finally know exactly what kind of man you are,” she replied firmly.
The phone was then snatched by Adelaide who told Elena that she would regret ruining her son’s life for the rest of her days.
“No, ma’am, it is you who will regret mistaking my patience for fear and my silence for weakness,” Elena said before hanging up the phone.
The next morning, Brandon showed up at the hospital with a cheap bouquet of flowers and swollen eyes while his entire family followed close behind him. Courtney was holding her phone up and broadcasting a live video to her followers while claiming that Elena was trying to destroy their family.
