Chapter 6
Vincent's eyes shifted from shock to pain, and finally, to complete hopelessness.
He stared at Margaret like a wounded beast.
His voice was hoarse, raw with pain. "Mom, is what Henry said true?"
Margaret wobbled, almost unable to stand.
She met Vincent's desperate gaze, opened her mouth, but not a single word came out.
Yes.
It was true.
She really had thought that.
In her heart, the Booth family's legacy and fortune mattered more to her than her "flawed" son.
Her silence said it all.
Vincent let out a sudden, bitter laugh.
His laughter was harsh, laced with self-mockery.
He pointed at Margaret, then at Henry. "Perfect. It's perfect. My mother and my cousin. You two joined forces to rip off my inheritance, to screw up my entire life. My thirty-year life is a joke."
As he laughed, tears streamed down his face.
Right there in front of everyone, a grown man broke down and cried like a little kid.
At that moment, I didn't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for him.
He was poor, but he asked for it.
If he hadn't been so weak, greedy, and selfish, none of this would have happened.
With the gloves off, Henry stopped pretending.
He straightened his collar and spoke with a cold, almost mocking tone, "Vincent, don't go blaming us. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not measuring up.
"You are sitting on a mountain of cash, but you have no kids to carry on the Booth name. You've embarrassed the whole family. I'm doing this for the Booth family's sake."
"You!" Vincent was so furious that he could barely breathe, pointing at Henry, his whole body trembling.
Margaret finally came to her senses and yelled at Henry, "You ungrateful bastard. All the care I gave you was wasted. Get out. Get out of my house!"
"Get out?" Henry laughed mockingly. "Aunt Margaret, I've got all your dirty little secrets in my pocket. If things really blow up, who do you think will end up looking worse?"
They were at each other's throats.
Callie and her parents stood off to the side, watching the whole thing like it was some kind of absurd circus.
They finally realized that compared to the Booth family's schemes, their own little tricks were nothing.
Damien tugged at Clover's arm. "Let's go. We're way out of our depth here." He wanted to get Callie out of this mess as fast as possible.
Clover was still reluctant to leave. "We're going to walk away? What about Callie's losses?"
Damien growled, "Do you want us to embarrass ourselves more?"
Callie instantly backed down.
The three of them slunk out, looking like dogs with their tails between their legs.
The huge living room was now only us and the Booth family's mess.
I waited until their bickering finally started to die down and then slowly pulled out the last document from the folder.
It was a divorce agreement.
I set it down on the table and slid it over to Vincent.
"Sign it." My voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the room, reaching everyone's ears.
"Divorce?" Margaret was the first to jump up. "Don't think about it. I won't allow it.
"You have no right to agree or disagree." I gave her a cold, emotionless stare. "This is strictly between Vincent and me."
I turned to Vincent.
He looked utterly defeated, his eyes hopeless and dead inside.
"Vincent, the terms are simple," I said. "First, this house goes to me. Second, the 10% stake in your company, the shares you were planning to hand over to Henry, are mine now.
"Third, I want 150 thousand dollars in emotional damages to be transferred to my account within a week. Sign this, and I won't say a word to other people about all the schemes, recordings, and evidence involving you, your mom, and your precious cousin."
My terms were pretty brutal.
But Vincent knew I was being as kind as I could.
If I blew the lid off all their secrets, the Booth family would be completely ruined.
He picked up the pen, his hand shaking so badly that he could barely hold it.
Seeing this, Margaret freaked out and lunged for the papers, desperate to snatch them away. "Don't sign it. Vincent, you can't sign it. If you sign, we'll lose everything."
I shot her a cold, emotionless look. "Margaret, do you really think you still have any leverage with me?"
Vincent ignored Margaret's hysterical cries.
He knew he was out of options.
Hands shaking, he scrawled his name at the bottom of the divorce agreement.
Every letter looked like it drained the last bit of strength from him.
When he was done, it was like all the fight had left his body.
I picked up the agreement, didn't bother to look at them, and turned to leave.
I couldn't stand to be in this house for one more second.
As I reached the door, Margaret's voice crept up behind me, sinister and chilling. "Kylee." Her words dripped with venom. "You think you've won?"
I stopped in my tracks, but didn't turn around.
She continued, "Don't forget who cleaned up your dad's company's mess. I've still got the evidence from back then.
"If you walk out that door with that agreement, I promise you, by tomorrow, your dad will be locked up for tax evasion, spending the rest of his life behind bars."
She finally played her last card. It was the trump card she thought would keep me under her thumb forever.