Chapter 160
Aspen dropped the phone into the pedicure tub.
Splash.
She scrambled out of the chair, slipping on the wet floor. “I need my lawyer! Daddy!” she screamed.
But Daddy wasn’t answering. He was too busy watching his company die.
𝖱𝗲a𝗱 𝗐𝘪t𝘩o𝗎t 𝘪ո𝘵𝖾𝗿r𝘶𝗉tіо𝘯s 𝗼n 𝗀𝘢l𝗻ov𝖾𝘭𝘀.c𝘰m
Jocelyn stepped out of the precinct into the late afternoon. The sun was setting, casting long shadows across the city.
She called Gaston.
“It’s done,” she said. “Zack confessed. They’re picking up Aspen.”
“Good.” His voice was warm — a stark contrast to the violence he had just unleashed on the stock market. “Come home. I made dinner.”
“You cook?” Jocelyn asked, a smile touching her lips.
“I heat things up very well,” he replied.
Jocelyn laughed. It was the first time she had laughed in forty-eight hours.
“I’m coming home,” she said.
Robert Schneider stared at the stock ticker on his wall.
$12.50.
The company had lost seventy percent of its value in twenty-four hours.
The CFO was weeping into his hands at the conference table. “We are being liquidated, Robert. The banks are calling in the loans. It’s over.”
Robert grabbed his phone with trembling hands and dialed the private number of Elbert Collins.
It rang once. Then it forwarded.
“This is Gaston Collins.” The voice that answered was smooth and cold.
“Gaston! Tell your father to stop — you’re killing us!” Robert begged. “We are family friends!”
“My father is retired, Robert,” Gaston said calmly. “This is my play.”
“Yours? Why?” Robert stammered. “What did I do?”
“Your daughter framed my wife for a felony,” Gaston replied. “And someone threw an egg at her. Consider this the legal fees.”
Robert went still. “Aspen? Aspen framed Jocelyn?”
“Check the news. Zack just confessed,” Gaston said. “Goodbye, Robert.”
Click.
Robert turned on the television. Breaking News: Musician Arrested in Wolfe Hotel Hoax. Socialite Aspen Schneider Sought for Questioning.
Robert sank into his chair. “That stupid girl.”
The door burst open. Aspen ran in — hair disheveled, makeup smeared, missing one shoe.
“Daddy! The police called! Help me!” she wailed. “Fix it!”
Robert rose slowly. He looked at her, but what he saw was not his daughter. He saw the smoldering ruins of a hundred-year-old family legacy. He saw his grandfather’s portrait on the wall, its painted eyes seeming to accuse him. Everything he had been given, everything he had built upon, reduced to ash because of her petty, childish rivalry.
He crossed the room toward her.
Smack.
He slapped her across the face. Hard.
The office went silent. Aspen clutched her cheek, too stunned to speak.
“You cost me two billion dollars today,” Robert whispered, his voice shaking with rage. “You destroyed this family.”
“Daddy…”
“Get out,” he said, turning his back on her. “Fix your own mess. I have nothing left to help you with.”
Aspen ran out sobbing and fumbled for her phone on the street below.
She called Kieran.
“Kieran! Everyone is against me — even Daddy! He hit me!” she cried.
.