The very next morning my lead attorney Carmen Ramirez joined me inside my spacious corner office. I slid a thick manila folder across the polished mahogany desk toward her.
“Please begin the formal review processes immediately,” I instructed her. “I do not want any tricks because we are going to enforce every single contract exactly as it was originally written.”
Carmen opened the heavy folder and quickly scanned the top page. “They legally have thirty days to cure these massive financial defaults.”
“They will never be able to pay it back.”
I then handed her a second folder containing much worse financial information.
Dad had illegally moved two hundred eighty thousand dollars from his corporate accounts directly into a hidden personal travel fund. Cameron had purposely disguised his own expensive home renovations as legitimate restaurant operating expenses to avoid paying higher taxes.
Madison had completely abused her business credit line to purchase a luxury sports utility vehicle for her own personal everyday use. Wyatt had secretly rented out the trust property to local college students and simply pocketed all the extra cash for himself.
They had not only taken huge advantage of my quiet generosity over the years. They had outright stolen from legitimate businesses that were tightly connected to highly regulated federal lending agreements.
That same afternoon Dad angrily stormed right past my receptionist and barged right into my private office.
“You are going to reinstate that island trip right now.”
“No I will not do that.”
“You owe this family some respect and loyalty.”
“I owe you absolutely nothing at all.”
“Everything you currently have in this world came directly from us.”
My parents had outright refused to pay my basic college application fees back in the day just because Cameron needed brand new football equipment.
“You clearly stated last night that I was not a part of your family.”
“That was obviously just a harmless joke Harper.”
“No it was not a joke but rather a very clear confession of how you actually feel.”
He slammed both of his heavy palms down onto my thick glass conference table. “Your mother already told all of our friends we are going on this trip so do you even understand how terrible this makes us look?”
“Yes I do understand,” I replied calmly. “It makes you look extremely accurate.”
His loud voice suddenly dropped into a very threatening whisper. “If you continue with this nonsense your brothers could completely lose their businesses while Madison loses her store and we could even lose our family home.”
