Chapter 8 - The Confrontation at the Mansion
At 7:00 PM, I arrived at our four-bedroom home in the Westlake Hills district of Austin.
The lights inside were all illuminated. Mark’s BMW was parked crookedly in the driveway, and beside it sat Theresa’s white Mercedes sedan.
I unlocked the front door with my key, stepped into the marble foyer, and set my leather briefcase on the entryway table.
The house was filled with the sound of raised, hysterical voices coming from the formal living room.
"You ruined us, Mark!" Theresa was screaming, her voice raw and hoarse from hours of crying. "You lied to me for three years! You made me look like an idiot in front of the entire country club!"
"I was trying to keep your lifestyle afloat, Mother!" Mark shouted back, his voice strained and desperate. "You demanded five thousand dollars a month for your social dues! Where do you think that money was coming from? My logistics firm has been losing twenty grand a month since last summer!"
"You should have told me!" Theresa wept. "You let me walk into that restaurant today and order fifteen thousand dollars worth of food! The staff treated me like a criminal, Mark! They wouldn't let me leave until I signed a personal promissory note using my home as collateral!"
I stepped smoothly around the corner into the living room entrance.
"Good evening," I said softly.
Both of them spun around instantly.
Mark looked like a man who had been caught standing in front of a firing squad. His tie was undone, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his eyes wide and bloodshot with panic.
Theresa stood near the fireplace, holding a crumpled linen handkerchief, her eyes flashing with a mix of terrified shame and lingering, toxic rage.
May you like
"Elena..." Mark stammered, stepping toward me with his hands outstretched. "Elena, thank God you're home. Look, my mother and I were just discussing the misunderstanding at the restaurant today—"
"It wasn't a misunderstanding, Mark," I said, sitting down calmly in a wingback chair near the window. "It was an audit."
