Chapter 7 - Darkness in the Mansion|
The next three days were a masterclass in financial collapse for my dear in-laws.
On Tuesday morning, the utility overdue notices arrived. I casually attached them to the front of the stainless-steel refrigerator using bright fruit magnets.
Electric Utility Notice: Final Demand - $1,450.00.
Water District Notice: Overdue Balance - $380.00.
High-Speed Fiber Internet: Service Suspension Warning.
Adrian tore the electric bill off the door, glanced at the grand total, and immediately shoved it into his pocket as if the paper itself might burn his hand.
“Why haven't you paid these?” he demanded, cornering me in the kitchen.
“With what money?” I asked, slicing an apple. “My account is reserved for my personal insurance and legal fees. You have your own job, don't you?”
By Wednesday afternoon, the warnings became reality.
The electric company cut the main power line to the house. The high-speed internet went dark. The central air conditioning ground to a sudden halt.
Within hours, the summer heat turned the five-bedroom home into an oven. The large refrigerator stopped cooling, and the expensive imported meats and cheeses Beatrice had hoarded over the months began to spoil, filling the kitchen with a sour, rotting stench.
Beatrice sat on the velvet sofa in the living room, fanning herself furiously with a rolled-up magazine, sweating through her silk robes.
“It’s unbearable!” she wailed to Adrian. “Call the electric company! Pay them!”
“I don't have fifteen hundred dollars in cash right now, Mom!” Adrian shouted back, wiping sweat from his forehead. “My paycheck doesn't come until next week!”
Meanwhile, I remained comfortably retreat in my private upstairs studio.
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I had set up a heavy-duty portable power station, a rechargeable high-speed fan, and a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. I sat in the cool air, drinking iced cold brew, managing a multimillion-dollar sales pipeline for my company while listening to them scream at each other downstairs.
They thought they were stripping my power. Instead, they were discovering that without my money, their grandeur was nothing more than a cardboard box in the rain.
