Chapter 16 - The Demise of the EstateThe cold winter wind swept through the empty streets of Cherry Hills as the moving trucks arrived at the mansion.
The IRS had officially frozen all of the family’s assets. The luxury cars were repossessed, the expensive furniture was auctioned off to pay back-taxes, and the grand mahogany dining table—the very table where I had been assaulted—was loaded into the back of a truck, sold to the highest bidder.
I stood on the sidewalk, wearing a warm wool coat, watching the liquidation of their lives.
Victoria walked out of the front door, carrying a single cardboard box. She looked twenty years older. Her expensive jewelry was gone, her designer clothes replaced by a simple, worn coat.
She saw me standing there.
She walked slowly down the driveway, her head lowered. "Are you happy now, Valerie? You’ve taken everything from us. We are ruined. We have nothing left."
I looked at the grand house behind her, now dark and empty.
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"I didn't take anything from you, Victoria," I said quietly. "Your greed, your arrogance, and your violence did this. You thought you could take my life's work because you believed you were better than me. You were wrong."
She didn't answer. She turned and walked away, getting into a cheap, rented sedan.
