Chapter 5 - The Ambush
We drove straight to the downtown police precinct, parking the old Ford truck in the visitor's lot.
I grabbed the thick folder of financial documents Marcus had securely emailed to us, clutching it tightly to my chest.
As we walked toward the heavy glass doors of the station, a familiar black SUV suddenly swerved into the parking lot.
It screeched to a halt entirely blocking the entrance to the building.
The driver's door flew open, and my father stepped out into the glaring afternoon sun.
He looked ten years older than he had just yesterday at the graduation party.
His face was pale, his hands were trembling, and his eyes darted around nervously.
"Claire, Ethan, stop right there," my father demanded, rushing toward us with his hands outstretched.
"How did you find us?" I asked, stepping firmly in front of my brother to shield him.
"Rebecca put a GPS tracker on the truck months ago," he confessed, looking at the ground in deep shame.
"You need to come home right now, Ethan, before she makes this any worse."
"Makes it worse?" Ethan scoffed, his anger finally overriding his profound sadness.
"She stole four hundred thousand dollars in my name and strapped me with three million dollars of your corporate debt!"
My father's head snapped up, his expression morphing into one of absolute, unadulterated shock.
"What are you talking about?" he stammered, looking frantically between the two of us.
"I only agreed to the guardianship so we could transfer the company assets to protect them from bankruptcy."
"Rebecca said the debts would be wiped clean by the court!"
I let out a harsh, bitter laugh that echoed across the quiet parking lot.
"She played you for an absolute fool, Dad," I told him, handing him a printed page from Marcus's file.
"She opened massive personal credit lines using his social security number."
"She is funneling the cash to the Cayman Islands, and she is going to leave you holding the empty bag while Ethan takes the fall."
My father stared at the bank statements, his hands shaking so violently that the paper rattled loudly.
The color completely drained from his face as the terrifying reality of his wife's betrayal fully sank in.
"Oh my god," he whispered, falling to his knees right there on the hot asphalt.
"I didn't know about this, I swear to you I didn't know."
"It doesn't matter what you knew," Ethan said coldly, looking down at the broken man who had failed to protect him.
"You still signed the papers saying I was crazy."
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Suddenly, the passenger door of the black SUV swung open.
Rebecca stepped out, holding a large manila envelope and wearing a cold, triumphant smirk.
