“You really should have considered all of those consequences before you decided to start stealing from my companies.”
Genuine fear finally entered his eyes for the first time in his entire life.
The heavy wooden door opened right behind him. Carmen confidently walked in alongside two professional forensic auditors who were carrying heavily sealed plastic evidence bags.
Dad stared blankly at the shiny metal badges clipped to their leather belts.
“What is the meaning of all this?”
I slowly closed the folder resting on the desk right in front of me.
“This is the exact moment you realize you targeted the completely wrong daughter.”
Six agonizing days later my desperate parents demanded an official family meeting inside the legal offices of Carmen Ramirez. Dad arrived wearing his best navy suit while Mother nervously clutched her expensive pearls.
Cameron and Wyatt sat quietly next to Madison right behind our parents. Carmen placed four thick investigative folders right in the middle of the large wooden conference table.
Dad cleared his throat and decided to speak first. “Harper this entire situation has gone far enough so if you restore everything we will agree to forgive this disgusting little spectacle.”
“Are you seriously telling me that you will forgive me?”
Mother folded her hands tightly together on top of the polished table. “You just need to apologize publicly and reinstate our vacation while stopping these ridiculous audits.”
Cameron quickly added his own demands to the growing pile. “You also need to release the freeze on all of our bank accounts.”
Their collective arrogance was honestly almost completely impressive to witness in person.
I quietly grabbed a remote control and activated the massive wall mounted conference screen. A highly detailed financial spreadsheet immediately appeared for everyone in the room to clearly see.
“Over the course of four years,” I began explaining, “Dad illegally diverted corporate money while Cameron falsified his business expenses and Wyatt profited immensely from trust property while Madison submitted totally fake inventory invoices.”
Wyatt jumped out of his expensive leather chair. “That is an absolute lie and you know it.”
Carmen simply slid a copy of his legally binding signed lease agreement right across the table toward him.
He instantly lost his fake confidence and slowly sat back down.
Mother stared at me with wide eyes full of absolute disbelief. “Did you actually hire people to investigate your own flesh and blood?”
