Chapter 89: The Weight of Consequences
At the exact same time, inside a high-rise building in Eric’s hometown, Jason was slumped listlessly in a chair facing the desk in the chairman’s office. His face looked like a total wreck. dark circles ringed his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in days, his clothes were wrinkled, his hair was messy, and he had a scraggly beard. He stared at the middle-aged man who was currently reading something inside a folder.
"Say something, Dad," Jason urged, losing his patience.
The slightly heavy-set, white-haired middle-aged man’s chest rose and fell heavily. Then, he calmly closed the folder and set it down on the desk. He turned his attention back to Jason.
"What exactly do you want me to say? You got slapped with a restraining order because you kept hounding Vivian, which is completely expected. Control your temper. Honestly, you should be grateful that Vivian’s family isn’t dragging you to court, considering she’s an emotional wreck from the miscarriage and that public altercation. I can still bail you out by paying a settlement to their lawyers," Martin, Jason and Eric’s father, said firmly.
Hearing that, Jason fell silent and looked down, but his face flushed red and his hands balled into fists, making it glaringly obvious he couldn’t accept his father’s inability to fully fix things for him. Then, he looked back up at his dad with bloodshot eyes.
"But I love Vivian, Dad... I really want to marry her," Jason said.
"Sigh," Martin just exhaled. He seemed to age five years in a matter of five minutes. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the emotional mess that was his son sitting across from him.
"If you actually loved her... why on earth did you hit her in the stomach when she was carrying your child? Enough, I don’t want to hear another word. Get back to work and do your job right. You haven’t shown up to the office in five days. You’re the CEO’s son, stop setting a horrible example for the employees. We have an image to maintain, understand?" Martin said, his tone sharp and his voice rising slightly.
"What about the lawsuits against Melissa and Blake... where do we stand on that, Dad?" Jason asked weakly.
Martin could only offer a bitter smile at Jason’s question. He didn’t answer, simply staring at his son because those lawsuits were a total dead end. He and Jason were the ones who had kicked Eric out in the first place, and since the video had been framed as an intimate encounter between Melissa and Eric, it wasn’t legally considered defamation. There wasn’t a single lawsuit out there that could undo what they did and bring Eric back.
"Stop bringing that up. Now get out there and do your job," Martin said, waving his hand dismissively.
Jason could only look down, stand up, and weakly walk out of the office. Once the door clicked shut, Martin reopened the folder on his desk. He stared at the financial reports; revenue for the month had plummeted by over 20%.
To make matters worse, the company’s stock price was tanking, all because his own reputation had been shot after his disastrous decision to kick out his own son based on nothing but a video and unproven accusations.
A lot of people now judged him as severely lacking when it came to making critical business decisions, and they were pulling out of partnerships left and right. While Martin sat there nursing a massive headache, "driiing," his phone suddenly rang.
He checked the caller ID and saw it was Ruby, so he picked it up.
"What is it?" Martin asked.
"Dad... I want a new car," Ruby replied, getting straight to the point.
"What’s wrong with your Honda I sent yesterday?" Martin asked.
"Nothing’s wrong really... but it’s just a Honda... can’t you at least buy me a BMW? All the kids here are loaded, and I can’t fit in," Ruby whined.
"I see. And how is school going over there? Are you settling into your apartment alright?" Martin asked.
"The apartment is fine and school is okay... so what do you say, Dad? Can I get it?" Ruby asked, entirely focused on her request and completely brushing off her father’s genuine concern.
"Alright, go ahead and look around. Pick whichever one you want, take a photo to show me, and let me know the price. I’ll wire you the money later," Martin replied, completely defeated and clearly unable to say no to his youngest daughter’s demands.
"Awesome... thanks, Dad! Love you," Ruby said.
"Love you too," Martin replied.
The call ended. Martin exhaled deeply once more, suddenly looking ten years older than before as he leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. A heavy silence settled over the office.
After a moment, he picked up his smartphone and opened the newly released music video by The Empress, written by Eric Reed, titled "Betrayal Enigma." Once the song started playing, he set the smartphone down on his desk, letting the melancholy, heart-wrenching melody echo through the room.
Martin closed his eyes, soaking in the music floating around him. Listening to the lyrics, which told the story of what it felt like to be betrayed by those you loved and trusted, yet still trying to find a deeper meaning behind that betrayal, turning it into an enigma, his mind began to wander.
Martin didn’t say a word, but the quiet look on his face made it painfully obvious just how deeply he regretted everything. Out of the three children he had raised, he had kept two worthless pebbles and thrown away a flawless diamond, the very diamond capable of creating a melody that pierced his heart yet somehow brought him peace.
And now, he couldn’t even force that diamond to come back, because he had completely cut ties with him. He didn’t even feel worthy of being proud or calling Eric his son anymore. Without him even realizing it, a single tear escaped his closed eyes, tracing a path down his face.
***
Meanwhile, inside a consultation room at the Stone and Friends law firm, Eric was reviewing the documents on the desk given to him by Katie, who sat relaxed across from him while checking her tablet.
It turned out Richard was absolutely right; traffic camera footage showed Melissa’s car being T-boned at a green light, hit hard and intentionally. The driver of that car had already been arrested, and their smartphone history revealed a text thread with Blake.
What completely trapped Paul, however, was his own chat history with Blake. The messages clearly showed him roping Blake into a partnership and subtly threatening him, having already investigated Blake and his mountain of debt.
On top of that, there was a record of a massive wire transfer from Paul’s personal account to Blake’s right after the crash. Then, in a twist that almost made Eric laugh out loud at the sheer irony, it turned out Blake owed money to loan sharks who worked directly under Joe Whitmore.
"Wow... this is really something. Now that there’s physical evidence and a victim lying in a hospital bed, Paul won’t be able to squirm his way out of this," Eric said.
"Yep... Norman has already drafted an arrest warrant for attempted premeditated murder," Katie replied.
"So he’s getting picked up immediately?" Eric asked.
"No, tomorrow at your office. And he’s not the only one. Mason is also going down for the murder of Ben Johnson in prison. As it turns out, Melissa had already gathered a ton of evidence in her apartment. The police grabbed all of it when they searched her place two days ago. That was her whole reason for getting close to Mason in the first place, until Paul caught wind of what she was up to," Katie answered.
"Tomorrow?" Eric asked.
"Yeah... I’ve already coordinated with CEO Bryan to call a board meeting tomorrow, and that’s where we drop a nuclear bomb right over both of their heads. The police have also been looped in and are standing by," Katie replied enthusiastically, clearly itching for tomorrow to arrive.
"Hmm... so I guess Chloe and I need to be there?" Eric asked.
"You have to be there. Chloe doesn’t need to because she has school. Bryan intends to officially introduce you to the board, shareholders, and other investors. I’ll let you know the exact time later since Bryan hasn’t updated me yet," Katie answered.
"Ah... I see. Alright then. But why did my number end up as Melissa’s emergency contact anyway?" Eric asked.
Hearing Eric’s question, Katie instantly grinned. She tapped her tablet, her fingers dancing across the screen for a moment, before turning the device around and sliding it over to him.
"This is from Norman... but he said it’s strictly off the record," Katie said, her smile widening.
Eric looked down at the screen. It showed a photo of a yellow sticky note that seemed to be pasted inside a notebook. He pinched to zoom in on the handwriting and read it. He was completely taken aback; the note simply read "my husband Eric" followed by a phone number.
Beneath it, a message read, "Pulled from Ms. Chloe’s profile data and the emergency contact listed there, which I managed to access using the old geezer’s credentials. The name and number above were listed exactly as written."
The number scribbled on that sticky note was unmistakably his own, but his mind raced trying to figure out why Chloe had written "my husband Eric" for the emergency contact in her profile within the company database.
As it turned out, Melissa had listed Eric as her emergency contact simply because she was copying Chloe. He looked up at Katie, who was sitting there grinning ear to ear,
"Um... so he got this from Chloe’s profile in the company database and... I’m listed as her husband? We aren’t even married," Eric said, utterly confused.
Katie didn’t offer an answer. She just kept staring at Eric with a playful smile, clearly enjoying the sight of him scratching his head in total bewilderment.
