I was going to take back everything that belonged to me, but the police arrived before I ever got the chance.
I was stopped at the company entrance. One by one, my calls stopped going through. The money we had pooled together vanished from my account without a trace.
Philip eventually walked out, surrounded by bodyguards.
He looked at me the way one might look at a joke.
“Nathan,” he said lightly, “after all these years, how are you still this naive?”
I was driven away like a stray dog.
That night, I went to a bar.
Glass after glass, I drank, trying to drown everything.
When I woke up, my head felt like it was splitting. Beside me lay a heavily made-up woman I did not recognize.
Before I could even piece things together, the door was slammed open.
Celeste and Philip stood in the doorway, my parents and sister behind them.
A swarm of reporters surged forward, cameras raised.
Flashbulbs exploded, nearly blinding me.
I rolled out of bed, humiliation burning through every nerve.
My father struck my back with his cane.
“Get him tested immediately,” he snapped. “I won’t have him bringing some disease back with him.”
When the test results came out, the hospital ward fell into dead silence.