Chapter 4 - The Predator in the LobbyThe next morning, the sun rose bright and uncaring over the city skyline. I walked down the grand marble staircase of my building, my ribs tightly wrapped beneath a heavy wool coat, my face hidden behind oversized dark sunglasses.
As I stepped into the lobby, a figure rose from one of the plush velvet armchairs near the fireplace.
It was Gloria.
She looked ridiculous. She was still wearing her silk caftan, now wrinkled and stained with what looked like street grime, her eyes bloodshot and swollen. She had spent the night sleeping in the lobby of a nearby boutique hotel, and her pride had been completely hollowed out.
"Sarah!" she hissed, rushing toward me, her fake nails clawing at my sleeve. "You must stop this madness! You must drop the charges against Daniel! Do you know what they did to him? They kept him in a holding cell all night with... with common criminals!"
I stopped, slowly removing my sunglasses so she could see the dark purple bruise blooming across my left cheekbone and the neat stitches on my lip.
"Your son is a common criminal, Gloria," I said, my voice quiet but carrying the force of an iron gate slamming shut. "And after what he did to my ribs, he’s lucky he’s not in a hospital ward."
"It was an argument!" she cried, her voice echoing off the marble walls of the lobby, drawing the attention of the doorman. "Husbands and wives have disagreements! You provoked him! You looked at his private things! A good wife would have ignored it!"
"A good wife would have let him steal her inheritance, forge her name, and fund his mistress’s pregnancy?" I asked, leaning in close so only she could hear. "I don't think so."
Gloria froze. The color drained from her face, leaving her looking old and gray beneath her heavy makeup. "What... what are you talking about?"
"I know about Celeste, Gloria. I know about the apartment in Soho. And I know about the $450,000 loan Daniel took out using my forged signature."
She tried to laugh, a high-pitched, desperate sound that rattled in her throat. "You... you can't prove that! Daniel is a successful businessman! He doesn't need your money!"
"The forensic handwriting expert I hired last night disagrees," I said, pulling a folder from my leather tote bag and tapping it. "And so does the District Attorney. By noon today, the freeze on all of Vance Media’s corporate accounts will be active. Daniel won't even have the money to pay his bail, let alone his mother's rent."
Gloria grabbed the front of her caftan, her breath hitching as if she were the one with broken ribs. "Sarah... please. We are family. We can work this out. Daniel loves you. He was just... confused."
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"The only thing Daniel was confused about was who held the power in this relationship," I said, putting my sunglasses back on. "Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting with my divorce attorney."
I walked past her, the heavy glass doors of the lobby swinging open into the crisp morning air, leaving her standing alone in the cold marble foyer of the building she had thought she owned.
