Chapter 2 - The Ambush
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It was Thursday evening. I was pulling into the driveway of my house in White Plains after picking Leo up from his after-school program.
A familiar, dark gray SUV was parked illegally across the front of my walkway.
My stomach tightened. I parked the Tesla in the garage, keeping the door closed.
"Leo," I said, turning to look at him in the back seat. "I want you to take your backpack and go straight upstairs to your room. Turn on your iPad and put your headphones on, okay? Don't come down until I come get you."
Leo frowned, sensing the tension. "Is Grandma here?"
"Yes," I said smoothly. "But I'm going to handle it. Go straight upstairs."
He nodded, unbuckling his seatbelt.
I waited until he was safely inside the house and I heard the lock click on his bedroom door before I walked out the front door to face them.
My mother and sister were standing on my front porch, bundled in expensive winter coats. My mother looked furious, her lips pursed into a thin, angry line. Carla looked slightly nervous, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
"Finally," my mother snapped as I stepped onto the porch, leaving the heavy front door closed behind me. "I have been calling you for four days, Nora. Do you have any idea how much stress you are causing your father? His blood pressure is through the roof."
"Good evening, Diane," I said coldly, folding my arms across my chest.
She flinched at the use of her first name.
"What is wrong with you?" Carla chimed in, finding her courage. "You cut off the mortgage payments? Dad got a notice from the bank today. You're going to make them lose the house over a stupid toy!"
"It wasn't a toy, Carla," I corrected, my voice dropping into the clinical, detached tone I used in boardrooms. "It was the blatant, cruel exclusion of a seven-year-old child. And I didn't cut off their mortgage payments. I stopped subsidizing their debt. There is a difference."
My mother stepped forward, trying to use her physical presence to intimidate me. It was a tactic that worked when I was twelve. It was completely useless now.
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"You are acting like a spoiled, vindictive child!" she shrieked, pointing a gloved finger at me. "I made one mistake, and you are trying to destroy this family! You owe us an apology, and you owe your father that money!"
"I owe you absolutely nothing," I stated flatly. "I paid off the debts you accrued because I thought we were a family. But families don't mock children. Families don't treat one grandson like a ghost while showering the others in gifts. You showed me exactly where Leo and I stand in your hierarchy. I simply adjusted my financial investments accordingly."
