Chapter 4 - The Revocation
The music stopped abruptly.
I peeked through the crack in the kitchen door.
Austin was standing in the center of the foyer, a glass of scotch in his hand.
"Who the hell is that?" he muttered, annoyed.
He opened the massive oak door, expecting a late guest.
Instead, he was met by three Sheriff’s deputies and a man in a sharp suit holding a blue folder.
Joshua stood behind them, his arms crossed, his face a mask of granite.
"Austin Bailey?" the deputy asked.
"Yeah? What is this? I’m having a private event."
The man in the suit stepped forward. It was Silas Thorne.
"Mr. Bailey, my name is Silas Thorne. I represent your parents, Joshua and Gianna Bailey."
"We are here to serve you with an Emergency Writ of Revocation and a Notice of Eviction."
A murmur went through the crowd of guests.
Peyton rushed forward, her face turning a bright, angry red.
"You can't do this! This is our house! My husband owns it!"
Silas didn't even look at her.
He opened the blue folder and began to read.
"Under the Ohio Revised Code, and pursuant to the specific 'Ingratitude Clause' within the 2009 deed..."
"...your ownership of this property has been terminated effective immediately due to the documented maltreatment of the Donors."
"Maltreatment?" Austin laughed, though his voice was shaking.
"That’s ridiculous. My mother loves it here."
"Gianna!" Joshua’s voice boomed through the house.
I pushed open the kitchen door.
I walked into the foyer, still wearing the stained apron, my hands visible to everyone.
The guests gasped.
Some turned away in shame. Others pulled out their phones to record.
"Look at her, Austin," Joshua said, stepping into the house.
"Look at the woman who gave you life. Look at what you did to her."
One of the deputies walked over to me.
"Ma'am, are you injured?"
"My hands," I whispered, holding them out.
The deputy’s face went cold. He looked at Austin.
"Sir, you have thirty minutes to gather your personal belongings."
"The locks are being changed as we speak."
"Thirty minutes?" Peyton shrieked. "We have sixty people here!"
"The guests are advised to leave immediately," the deputy said.
"This property has reverted to its original owners."
The panic was instantaneous.
The "important" people of Columbus scrambled for their coats.
They didn't want to be associated with a man who enslaved his own mother.
They didn't want to be in the photos of the eviction.
Austin stood there, his glass of scotch shattered on the marble floor.
He looked at the deed in Silas’s hand.
He realized that the "gift" was gone.
He had traded a mansion for a bucket of bleach.
May you like
And the house was hungry for its true owners.
***
