Chapter 18 - The Final Nail
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Veronica began to sob, sliding down the doorframe until she hit the floor.
"I didn't want to," Veronica cried, her makeup running down her face. "My father made me! Charles told me Caldwell Development was getting too independent. He needed leverage. He told me to seduce you, Grant. To keep you distracted so they could control the board."
Grant looked like he had been struck by lightning. He staggered back. The woman he had thrown his wife away for had been a corporate spy the entire time.
"But that’s not the best part," Lena said, leaning heavily on her cane, her eyes locking onto Warren.
Matthew Kane stepped forward, opening a folder. He pulled out a medical document and a stack of cleared checks.
"Two years ago," Matthew read aloud to the horrified room, "Veronica Pike had an abortion at a private clinic in Switzerland. The procedure, and the subsequent hush money paid over the last twenty-four months, was funded directly from a private Cayman account."
Grant looked at Lena, confused. "She was pregnant? Two years ago? But we only started sleeping together six months ago."
"Exactly," Lena whispered.
She turned her gaze slowly from Grant to his father.
The realization hit the room like a physical shockwave.
Grant looked at Warren. Warren was sweating, looking anywhere but at his son.
"Dad?" Grant asked, his voice trembling, sounding like a frightened child. "Dad, tell me she’s lying. Tell me you didn't."
"She was leverage!" Warren exploded, trying to justify the unforgivable. "Charles was trying to extort us! I had to keep her close! I had to compromise her so her father couldn't use her against us!"
Grant let out a guttural, animalistic scream.
He lunged at his own father.
He tackled Warren into a table of crystal glassware. It shattered violently as the two men crashed to the floor, rolling in the broken glass. Grant punched his father in the face, screaming incoherently, his mind completely fractured by the ultimate betrayal.
Guests shrieked and ran for the exits. Veronica curled into a ball on the floor, weeping loudly.
May you like
Lena stood completely still amidst the chaos, leaning on her cane, watching the Caldwell family tear itself apart with its own bare hands.
The distant wail of police sirens began to echo up the coastal highway.
