Chapter 6 - The Confrontation
I returned to the house one last time to oversee the final eviction.
The police were already there,
leading my mother out in handcuffs.
She wasn't crying;
she was screaming about her "rights" and my "ingratitude."
"I gave you everything!"
she shrieked as they led her past the mahogany table.
"I made you the man you are!"
"No,"
I said,
standing on the porch as the neighbors watched.
"You gave me life,
but Gwen gave me a soul."
"And today,
I am taking back the life you tried to steal."
Gavin was caught at the airport,
trying to board a flight to Grand Cayman with a suitcase full of cash and jewelry.
They brought him back to the house in a separate squad car.
He looked pathetic,
the bravado of the "successful entrepreneur" replaced by the sweat of a common thief.
"Lucas,
bro,
it was just a joke,"
he stammered,
looking at the ground.
"We were going to give it back."
"The insurance policy wasn't a joke,
Gavin,"
I said,
stepping close to him.
"The basement wasn't a joke."
"The starvation of my wife and child wasn't a joke."
I handed the lead detective the ledger and the phone I had found.
"Everything is in there,"
I said.
"The fraud,
the abuse,
the conspiracy to commit murder."
As they were driven away,
a heavy silence fell over Crestview Estates.
The luxury and the opulence felt like a shroud.
I walked through the rooms,
ordering the staff to strip the house.
"Every piece of furniture she touched,"
I commanded.
"Every rug,
every curtain,
every plate."
"Burn it all."
I didn't want a single memory of them left in this place.
I went to the dining room and looked at the floor where Gwen had been kneeling.
I took a sledgehammer from the tool shed and began to smash the marble.
I swung until my arms ached,
until the floor was nothing but dust and rubble.
I would rebuild this house from the foundation up.
It would be a home of light,
of warmth,
and of safety.
But first,
I had to go back to the hospital.
The real battle was just beginning.
The doctor had called.
May you like
Gwen’s blood pressure was spiking.
The stress of the day had triggered early labor.
