Chapter 3 - THE MIAMI DISGRACE
While Grant was sweating in a soundproof basement,
his mother,
Beatrice,
was enjoying the salt air of South Beach.
She was staying at the Fontainbleau,
in a suite that cost five thousand dollars a night.
She had a bottle of Cristal on ice.
She had a massage therapist waiting in the spa.
And she had my credit card in her designer purse.
“She just ordered a gold-leaf facial,”
Rachel noted,
tracking the real-time alerts on her screen.
I looked at the clock.
It was 11:30 PM.
“Kill the card,”
I said.
“Wait,”
Rachel said,
her eyes gleaming.
“Let her finish the facial first.”
“I want her to be halfway through the most expensive meal of her life when the waiter delivers the news.”
I nodded.
Beatrice had been the one to encourage Grant’s greed.
She had spent years whispering in his ear that he deserved my fortune.
She had treated me like an outsider in my own home.
She had even tried to choose Ava’s name,
dismissing my choices as ‘common.’
I watched the digital map of Miami.
The card was being used at a high-end steakhouse.
The total was already three thousand dollars.
“Now,”
I said.
Rachel hit a single key.
The transaction alert popped up:
“Card Terminated.
Reported Stolen.”
“I’ve also flagged the hotel reservation,”
Rachel added.
“The security team at the Fontainbleau is being notified as we speak.”
“They’ll be asking her to vacate the suite within the hour.”
I imagined Beatrice’s face.
The shock.
The embarrassment.
The realization that her son wasn't the master of the house anymore.
She would try to call him,
of course.
But Grant wouldn't answer.
He couldn't answer.
He was in a silent box of stone and steel.
“What about his sister?”
Nora asked,
bringing me a fresh blanket.
“She’s in the guest house,”
Rachel said.
“Or she was.”
“I’ve cut the power to the guest house and the main gate.”
“She’s currently sitting in the dark,
surrounded by the 'family photos' she worked so hard to display.”
I felt a strange sense of relief.
The people who had tried to colonize my life were being evicted,
one by one.
But the main battle was still ahead.
I had to go back to the house.
I had to face the man who had tried to rob my daughter of her home.
“Rest for a few hours,
Lena,”
Rachel said.
“The police are on standby.”
“We’ll move at dawn.”
I closed my eyes,
but I didn't sleep.
I listened to the sound of Ava’s breathing.
May you like
It was the most beautiful sound in the world.
And it was the only thing that mattered.
