Chapter 18 - Stripped Bare
|
A week later, the remnants of the Jones family were completely broken.
Adelaide sat in the back of a heavily armored Maybach, Mateo sitting beside her, holding her hand. They were parked across the street from a rundown, seedy motel on the outskirts of Boston.
Through the tinted windows, Adelaide watched as her father, Rockford, stumbled out of the motel room holding a cheap plastic grocery bag. He looked aged, sickly, and utterly defeated. Evelyn followed him, screaming at him in the pouring rain, her expensive hair matted and her designer clothes stained with mud. Chloe trailed behind them, crying hysterically as she tried to pull a broken suitcase through a puddle.
They had nothing. No money, no friends, and no future. The federal indictments were looming, and they would likely spend the rest of their lives in minimum-security prisons.
“Do you want to speak to them?” Mateo asked softly, watching the pathetic display. “I can have my men bring them to the car.”
Adelaide stared at the people who had made her childhood a living nightmare. She felt a brief flicker of pity, but it was quickly extinguished by the memory of Evelyn’s cruel laughter and her father’s cowardly silence.
“No,” Adelaide said firmly, turning her eyes away from the window and looking at her husband. “I have nothing left to say to them. They are strangers to me now.”
Mateo smiled, a proud, fierce look in his eyes. He tapped on the privacy glass separating them from the driver.
“Take us home, Marco,” Mateo ordered.
The heavy luxury car pulled away from the curb, leaving the Jones family behind in the rain and the mud, completely unaware that the daughter they had thrown away was driving past them in a multi-million dollar fortress.
As the car merged onto the highway, returning to the Berkshire Mountains, Adelaide leaned her head on Mateo’s shoulder.
May you like
“Are you okay?” Mateo asked, wrapping his arm tightly around her.
“I’m perfect,” Adelaide whispered, and for the first time in her life, it was the absolute truth.
