Chapter 4 - The Night of Broken Glass
I chose the night of the annual summer gala—the one night a year my parents were guaranteed to be distracted, surrounded by the elite of Austin society. It was the perfect window to penetrate the "vault" they kept in the study. I left Lily with a trusted babysitter—a college student I knew through my old job who wouldn't ask questions—and drove back toward my childhood home.
The estate looked even more imposing under the moonlight. I parked in the woods behind the property, the same woods where I had played as a boy, and navigated the shadows toward the back terrace. My father’s security system was state-of-the-art, but it was designed to keep strangers out, not to monitor someone who knew the house’s structural flaws. I bypassed the motion sensors by climbing onto the roof and entering through the attic crawlspace, just as I had when I was ten years old.
The study was exactly as I remembered it—a shrine to my father's ego. The safe was hidden behind a painting of my grandfather. It took me twenty minutes to manipulate the dial, my fingers slick with sweat. When it finally clicked open, I didn't find just bank statements; I found a ledger labeled "Project Sunshine."
It was a systematic list of names. Claire’s name was there, alongside others—women from the community, some of whom I recognized from the church bulletin. They were all linked to the same clinic, the same "palliative care" grants, and the same payout structure.
I heard a floorboard creak in the hallway. I didn't have time to scan the ledger. I ripped the pages out, shoved them into my jacket, and grabbed the entire hard drive sitting in the corner of the safe.
"Daniel?"
The voice belonged to my mother. She stood in the doorway, a wine glass in her hand, her eyes widening as she saw me silhouetted against the open safe.
"I always knew you were the disappointment of this family," she whispered, her voice devoid of any warmth. "But I never thought you were a thief."
"I'm not stealing what's mine, Mother," I said, backing toward the window. "I'm retrieving the truth."
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She didn't run for the alarm. She reached for the heavy crystal vase on the desk. "You don't leave this room with those papers, Daniel. You don't know what you're interfering with. This isn't just about money; it’s about the future of the firm. You’re going to step away, and we’re going to have a long, painful talk about your future."
"My future doesn't include people like you," I said, grabbing a letter opener from the desk and brandishing it, not to fight, but to create space. I jumped through the window, the glass shattering around me like diamonds, and hit the grass running. I heard her scream for my father, but I was already a ghost in the dark, heading for the fence. I had the ledger. I had the proof. And for the first time in my life, I was finally, truly free of the Collins shadow.
