Chapter 5 - Retaliation
By 2:00 a.m., the heavy gates of the Williams Family Estate in Silverspring swung open.
The rain had turned into a steady drizzle. Brian pulled the SUV up the long, tree-lined driveway, stopping directly in front of the grand stone mansion.
Inside the house, lights were blazing on every floor. Through the tall windows, servants could be seen frantically packing clothes, moving crystal vases, and carrying leather luggage down the grand staircase.
When Victor stepped out of the vehicle carrying a sleeping Annie in his arms, with Catherine wrapped in his warm wool coat beside him, two private security guards in black suits immediately approached them.
"Mr. Williams," the head security officer bowed respectfully. "As per your orders, we have secured the perimeter. Mrs. Maris Williams is inside her bedroom, refusing to leave."
"Is she alone?" Victor asked coldly.
"No, sir. Her personal attorney, Mr. Richard Vance, arrived twenty minutes ago."
Victor’s mouth twisted into a dark smile. Richard Vance was the family’s high-priced corporate lawyer—a ruthless man who had helped Maris handle the estate’s off-book finances for over a decade.
"Good," Victor said. "Let's finish this tonight."
They walked through the front doors into the towering marble foyer. Catherine paused at the threshold, her hand trembling slightly in Victor's grip. The last time she had stepped foot in this foyer, Maris had hired guards to physically drag her out into the street while she was throwing up from her pancreatitis.
Victor felt her tremble and squeezed her hand tighter. "You don't ever have to be afraid again, Catherine. This is your house."
They walked up the grand staircase toward the master wing. The heavy oak doors to the main parlor were wide open.
Inside, Maris was pacing furiously in front of a marble fireplace, wearing an expensive silk robe, while Richard Vance sat at a glass desk reviewing a stack of legal documents.
"I don't care what Victor says!" Maris snapped at her lawyer, her voice hoarse from crying. "I am his mother! I built the family reputation! He cannot legally lock me out of this house! Find a loop-hole, Richard!"
"There is no loop-hole, Maris," a cold voice spoke from the doorway.
Maris turned around sharply. When her eyes fell on Catherine—standing tall beside Victor, clean, warm, and holding his hand—her eyes flamed with pure venom.
"You..." Maris hissed, pointing a diamond-encrusted finger at Catherine. "You filthy little leech! Look at you, dragging your pathetic self back here to claim my son's fortune! Did you enjoy living in the trash where you belong?!"
SMACK!
The sound rang through the parlor like a gunshot.
Maris staggered back, clutching her left cheek in sheer shock.
It wasn't Victor who had struck her. It was Catherine.
Catherine stood straight, her chin raised, her dark eyes flashing with a fierce, unbreakable power. She didn't look like the frail, sick woman from the Northside apartment anymore. She looked like a mother who had returned to destroy the monster who tried to starve her child.
"Don't you ever speak about my daughter or me again, Maris," Catherine said, her voice smooth, deep, and dangerous. "You took three years of my life. You forced my child to sleep in the cold. You are a sick, twisted monster, and your reign over this family ends tonight."
Maris gasped, looking at Richard Vance. "Richard! Call the police! Assault! She assaulted me!"
Richard Vance slowly closed his briefcase, standing up from the desk. He looked at Victor, then at Maris, and sighed deeply.
"Maris, be quiet," Richard said flatly.
"What?!" Maris gasped.
"Mr. Williams," Richard Vance said, bowing his head respectfully toward Victor. "I received the forensic financial audit your team initiated two hours ago. I have no interest in going to federal prison for corporate fraud. I am officially resigning as your mother's counsel."
Richard opened his briefcase, pulled out a thick blue folder, and set it on the glass table.
"What is that?" Victor asked.
"Those are the bank ledgers for the off-shore account in the Cayman Islands your mother set up three years ago," Richard explained, avoiding Maris’s furious glare. "She didn't just keep the fifty thousand dollars a month you sent for Catherine. She also embezzled over four million dollars from the Williams Development Corporation's charity trust fund."
Maris collapsed into an armchair, clutching her chest, her face turning gray. "Richard... you traitor..."
Victor picked up the blue folder, flipped through the pages of bank statements, signatures, and wire transfers, and handed them to the private security guard standing at the door.
"Call the Federal District Attorney," Victor ordered. "Tell them we have the complete paper trail for grand larceny, wire fraud, and corporate embezzlement."
"No!" Maris screamed, throwing herself out of the chair onto the carpet, grabbing at Victor's trousers. "Victor! Please! I am your mother! You can't send me to prison! I’ll die in prison!"
Victor looked down at the weeping woman on the floor—the same woman who had shown zero mercy to a sick mother and a hungry eight-year-old child.
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"You should have thought about that before you left my daughter to eat out of the trash," Victor said coldly.
He turned to the security guards. "Escort her off the property. If she sets foot on this land again before the police arrive, have her arrested for trespassing."
