Chapter 16 - The Desperate Knees
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Six weeks after the wedding, Judith Mercer appeared outside the gated security entrance of my residential skyscraper.
She couldn't pass the front desk guards, so she stood on the public sidewalk in the pouring rain, shouting my name every time a vehicle pulled into the driveway.
When my driver brought me down to address the disturbance alongside Nathan Cole, Judith looked unrecognizable. Her hair was matted by the rain, her clothes were disheveled, and the fierce arrogance that had defined her for decades had completely crumbled.
The moment she saw me step under the building's awning, she dropped heavily onto her knees on the wet concrete.
Passing pedestrians paused, pulling out their phones to watch the scene unfold.
"Rebecca! Please!" Judith wailed, reaching her trembling hands toward me. "You have to help us! The bank is foreclosing on our house! We're going to be thrown out onto the street!"
I remained standing under the awning, my expression unreadable. "Stand up, Judith."
"Daniel said you control the banks!" she sobbed, rain running down her face. "You have billions! You can stop the foreclosure with one phone call! I'm begging you!"
I looked down at the woman who had handed me a bucket of filthy laundry on my wedding night and smiled when her son struck me.
"If I were still the broke assistant you believed I was six weeks ago," I asked softly, "would you be kneeling in the rain right now?"
Judith choked on her breath, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. "That's... that's not fair!"
"It's an honest question," I stated.
May you like
"We were angry!" she protested. "You deceived us about who you were!"
"You demanded my servitude," I corrected her. "You told me my worth was measured by how well I washed your family's dirty clothes."
