Chapter 9 - Total Ruin
The destruction of Richard Vance was absolute and entirely legal.
When Monday arrived, the bank foreclosed on the rented suburban home. Richard’s mother, heavily dependent on Richard's stolen funds to maintain her lifestyle, was forced to move into a tiny, state-funded apartment in a dilapidated neighborhood.
Vanessa, realizing the gravy train had violently derailed, abandoned Richard at the courthouse. She tried to sell her story to the tabloids, claiming she was a victim, but Julian’s legal team slapped her with a mountain of defamation suits that froze her assets and left her completely destitute.
Richard sat in Family Court with a public defender. He looked ten years older, his suit wrinkled, his eyes hollow.
The judge reviewed the Hawthorne legal team's mountain of evidence: the viral video, the financial records, the documented abuse.
"Mr. Vance," the judge said in absolute disgust. "Your parental rights are hereby terminated permanently. You are ordered to stay a minimum of five hundred yards away from Maya and Lily Hawthorne. Furthermore, as Hawthorne Enterprises owns your corporate debt, your remaining business assets are seized."
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The gavel banged.
Richard looked across the aisle. Maya sat there, beautiful, composed, and completely untouchable. She didn't smile. She didn't gloat. She just looked right through him, as if he were a ghost. Because to her, he was already dead.
