Chapter 11 - The Financial Chokehold
The boardroom cleared out quickly. The disgraced board members scrambled over each other to escape my wrath, and Graham followed his screaming wife out the door, his head bowed in absolute defeat.
The silence that followed was profound. I sat down heavily in the chair Natalie had vacated, the adrenaline slowly leaving my system, replaced by a deep, bone-aching exhaustion. The company was secure, but the war was far from over.
I knew Natalie. I had raised her. I knew her entitlement was matched only by her profound, reckless financial incompetence.
She had lived her entire life on my dime. She had absolutely no concept of budgeting, saving, or consequence. Her entire luxurious lifestyle—the Pacific Palisades mansion, the designer clothes, the extravagant vacations—was funded by the massive, monthly dividend checks generated by the Class B shares I had just officially frozen.
I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialed my personal wealth manager, a ruthless, brilliant man named David.
"David, the corporate freeze is fully executed," I confirmed, rubbing my temples. "I need you to initiate phase two immediately."
"Are you absolutely certain about this, Beatrice?" David asked carefully over the line. "Once we pull these specific levers, the financial fallout for her will be catastrophic and instantaneous."
"Pull the levers, David."
"Understood."
I had never told Natalie the specific, brutal details of the financial arrangements I had made for her over the years. When I provided the massive down payment for her Pacific Palisades mansion, I hadn't simply gifted her the cash. Arthur had taught me better than that. I had established a complex, private family trust that actually held the primary mortgage note.
I didn't just give her the house; I was legally her bank.
For years, I had quietly, consistently forgiven the monthly mortgage payments she routinely "forgot" to make, writing them off as gifts to keep the peace.
But I was no longer keeping the peace.
"Initiate foreclosure proceedings on the Palisades property immediately due to severe, sustained non-payment," I instructed David, my voice devoid of any pity. "And cancel the black American Express card. Cut off the auto-pay for her car insurance, her country club dues, and Graham's private golf membership."
"It will all be locked down within the hour," David promised.
May you like
I hung up the phone and looked out the massive glass window at the sprawling, bustling city below. Natalie had arrogantly believed she could steal my empire because she thought I was too weak and tired to fight back.
She was about to learn how incredibly cold the real world was when the thermostat wasn't being secretly paid for by her grandmother.
