The Heiress’s Reckoning: Canceling the $500M Trust Chapter 17

The Heiress’s Reckoning: Canceling the $500M Trust Chapter 17: The Turned Away

Rain lashed against the second-floor windows, a violent drumming that matched the pounding in my skull. I pushed the heavy French doors open and stepped onto the stone balcony. The biting night wind whipped my velvet skirt around my ankles.

Down below, Mia gripped the wrought-iron bars of the main gate. Mud coated her ruined school dance dress.

“Mom! Open the gate!” Mia screamed, shaking the unyielding metal.

I stood at the edge of the parapet, staring down at her.

“You have to pay him!” Mia yelled, pointing a shaking finger at the yellow taxi idling on the curb. “He won’t leave me alone! And you have to let me in! They came to the apartment!”

The taxi driver leaned out of his window. “Hey! I want my forty bucks! I don’t care who lives in this castle. Pay the fare or I’m calling the cops!”

Julian stepped onto the balcony behind me. The wind ruffled his perfectly pressed suit. He held out a silver two-way radio.

I stared at the device. My fingers felt numb as I reached out and took it from his hand.

“Who came to the apartment, Mia?” I pressed the talk button. My voice echoed out of the stone pillar speakers flanking the driveway.

Mia jumped. She pressed her face against the wet iron, peering into the darkness.

“Mom? Oh my god, you’re there.” She sobbed, her shoulders heaving. “Just buzz me in! It’s freezing!”

“Answer the question,” I commanded into the radio.

“Men!” she shrieked. “Scary men. They kicked the front door in. They said Chloe owes them fifty thousand dollars. They started smashing the TV and tearing up the sofa.”

I released the button. The connection cut off, leaving only the sound of the storm.

“Shall I dispatch a guard to settle the taxi fare, ma’am?” Julian asked quietly.

I shook my head. I brought the radio back to my mouth.

“Where is your father?” I asked.

Mia sank to her knees in the puddle. She wrapped her arms around her stomach.

“He wasn’t there!” she cried. “He left with Chloe. They left us alone! Leo ran out the fire escape when the door splintered. I didn’t know where else to go. Please, Mom. I’m scared.”

A rusty saw dragged across my chest. The imaginary metal teeth caught on my ribs, pulling back and forth with agonizing friction. I carried this girl for ten months. I endured thirty hours of labor to bring her into the world. I rocked her to sleep when night terrors made her scream.

Every biological instinct screamed at me to run down the sweeping marble staircase. My brain demanded I throw open the heavy oak doors, rush out into the freezing rain, and pull my daughter into my arms.

My right leg locked.

My knee stiffened completely. I tried to take a step backward, to retreat into the warm bedroom, but my muscles refused to obey. The maternal bond fought a vicious war against the fresh, bleeding betrayal she handed me in that courtroom.

I reached out and grabbed the wooden doorframe.

“Mom, please!” Mia begged. “I know you have money now! Just pay the driver and let me inside!”

“You have the wrong address,” I said into the radio.

My tone stayed completely flat. No tremor. No warmth. I sounded like an automated machine.

Down below, Mia froze. She stared up at the dark silhouette of the manor.

“What?” Mia asked, wiping rain and mascara from her eyes. “Mom, it’s me! It’s Mia!”

“There is no mother here,” I stated.

“Stop joking! They are going to find me!”

“This property belongs to a stranger,” I continued, my voice echoing through the stone pillars. “A stranger with severe paranoia and obsessive-compulsive delusions. A psychopath.”

Mia flinched as if I had reached down and slapped her across the face.

The words she read into the court microphone just days ago now bounced back at her. The accusation she practiced with Marcus to destroy my credibility hung in the freezing air between us.

“No, no, I didn’t mean it!” Mia shrieked. She rattled the iron bars frantically. “Dad told me to say that! Chloe promised me a shopping spree if I read the paper! I’m sorry!”

“Actions have consequences.”

“I am your daughter!”

“You chose your family in front of a judge,” I replied. “Go find them.”

“You can’t do this!” Mia screamed. Her voice cracked, turning into a guttural wail. “I’m fourteen! You have to take care of me!”

“I do not have to do anything.”

I dropped my thumb from the button. I turned my back to the balcony.

The wood of the doorframe groaned under my grip. I squeezed the painted trim until my knuckles turned stark white. A sharp splinter wedged under my index fingernail. Pain flared in my hand, grounding me, forcing me to stay present.

I pulled my fingers away. A small, jagged chip of white paint fell to the floorboards.

“Madam President?” Julian prompted. He watched my bleeding finger.

“Tell security to clear the perimeter,” I instructed him. I walked past him, stepping into the master bedroom. “If she refuses to leave, they can call child services to pick her up.”

“Understood.”

Julian raised his own radio to relay the orders to the gatehouse.

I closed the French doors. The heavy glass muffled her desperate wails, reducing her screams to a dull hum beneath the sound of the rain. I stood in the center of the dark room, refusing to turn on the lights. I stared out the window, watching the scene unfold below.

Mia remained on her knees in the mud. She slammed her fists against the iron gate, her head bowed in total defeat.

The cab driver lost his patience. He slammed his hand against the hood of his car.

“That’s it!” the driver shouted, his voice barely penetrating the thick glass of my window. “I’m calling the cops. You can explain this to them!”

He reached into his pocket for his phone.

Before he could dial, a pair of headlights cut through the torrential rain.

A black van sped down the quiet, wealthy street. It did not slow down for the speed bumps. It careened toward the estate gates and screeched to a halt directly behind the yellow taxi, blocking the driver from reversing.

Mia snapped her head up.

The side door of the van slid open with a harsh metallic scrape.

Three men stepped out into the storm. Thick, dark ink covered their necks and trailed down their bare arms. The tallest one carried a heavy steel pipe.

He pointed the pipe directly at Mia.