Chapter 18 - Begging on Knees
|
Three weeks later.
The fall of Dylan Vance was swift, brutal, and absolute.
Vance Capital went into immediate liquidation after Sterling Global pulled its assets. The firm was declared bankrupt within ten days. The District Attorney seized Dylan’s personal accounts, his Oakridge house, and his luxury cars to satisfy the millions in stolen trust funds and unpaid corporate debts.
Sierra was held without bail due to her flight risk, facing up to fifteen years in state prison for corporate fraud and criminal negligence.
It was a cold, rainy Tuesday afternoon when I pulled up to Haley’s private elementary school in my new SUV to pick her up.
As I walked toward the front entrance, a figure stepped out from behind a tree near the gates.
It was Dylan.
He was barely recognizable. He was wearing a threadbare, dirty jacket, his face was covered in dark stubble, his eyes were sunken and bloodshot, and he looked like he hadn't slept or showered in weeks. Out on temporary bail while awaiting trial, he was completely broke, abandoned by his friends, and ruined by the media.
"Elena..." he rasped, trembling in the cold rain, stepping toward me with his hands reaching out in desperation.
I stopped, my expression unreadable. "You're not allowed within five hundred feet of me or Haley, Dylan. There's a restraining order."
Dylan dropped to his knees right there on the wet pavement, tears cutting clear tracks through the grime on his face.
"Elena, please!" he sobbed hysterically, grabbing at the hem of my coat. "Please, I begged my lawyers! I have nothing left! They took the house, they took the firm, Sierra was using me... I was so stupid, Elena! I was so blind!"
I looked down at the man who had treated me like a domestic maid for five years—the man who had walked away from his suffocating child to play hero for another woman.
"I made a mistake, Elena!" Dylan wept, bowing his head until his forehead touched my wet leather boots. "I love you! I've always loved you! Please... give me one more chance! Let me see Haley! Let me come home!"
I stepped back, pulling my boot out from beneath his head.
"You don't have a home here, Dylan," I said, my voice as cold as the winter rain falling around us. "And as for Haley... she doesn't ask about you anymore."
Dylan lifted his face, horror breaking through his despair. "What... what do you mean?"
"The night you left us in that ambulance," I whispered, leaning down slightly, "she asked me if Daddy didn't want us anymore. Do you know what I told her, Dylan?"
Dylan shook his head frantically, weeping softly.
May you like
"I told her that her father was dead," I said flatly. "And as far as she's concerned... he is."
I turned my back on him as the school doors opened and Haley ran out, smiling happily under her small yellow umbrella. I swept my daughter up into my arms, holding her close, and walked away without looking back at the broken man crying in the mud.
