Chapter 5 - The Glass House Shivers
The public exposure began the next morning. My mother’s face was splashed across the headlines, not as the noble matriarch, but as the architect of a shadow operation built on blackmail and human cruelty.
I watched as the stock of Whitmore Industries dipped, then plummeted. I saw the news reporters camped outside her mansion, the same mansion where we had once been happy.
Vivian called me once, an hour after the story broke. I let it ring until it went to voicemail. I didn't want to hear her excuses, her threats, or her pleas. I listened to the message, her voice trembling with a rage I had never heard before.
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"You think you’ve won, Julian?" she hissed. "You have no idea what you’ve started. A name like ours doesn't fall without taking everything with it. You’re not just killing me; you’re killing the future you think you’re protecting".
I deleted the message. I turned to Audrey, who was sitting at the table, planning our next move with a sharp, calculated precision. For the first time since I’d come home with those white roses, the nightmare felt like it was ending. We were no longer victims. We were the architects of our own survival. And we were only just getting started.
