Chapter 6 - The Scavengers
Three days later, the fallout hit the front pages of every major financial newspaper and gossip blog in the country.
HALE EMPIRE COLLAPSES OVERNIGHT: FORMER CEO EVERETT HALE UNMASKED AS A FRAUD. MYSTERY HEIRESS CLAIRE SUTTON TAKES CONTROL OF MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR CONGLOMERATE.
The media circus outside the gates of the former Hale Westchester estate was absolute bedlam. Television crews, paparazzi, and curious onlookers crammed onto the snow-covered suburban street, shoving microphones toward the front gates where heavy iron chains and red legal seizure notices now hung like executioner's banners.
Inside a cramped, dingy motel room twenty miles away from the estate, the reality of their new existence had finally begun to set in.
Everett sat on the edge of a sagging double bed, staring blankly at a small, flickering television screen mounted on the wall. His expensive Brioni suit was rumpled, his hair uncombed, his eyes sunken and hollow.
Diane was pacing back and forth across the threadbare carpet, wringing her hands and sobbing hysterically.
"This is a nightmare! A complete nightmare!" Diane shrieked, her voice cracking with manic desperation. "How could this happen?! We had everything! We had society! We had millions! And now we're living in a roach-infested motel room because of that ungrateful, worthless little bitch!"
"Shut up, Mother!" Everett snapped, his voice suddenly exploding with a vicious, venomous fury. He stood up so fast his chair crashed backward onto the floor. "Just shut your damn mouth! Every time you opened your mouth to insult her, every time you demanded she bow down to us, you pushed her further away! You thought she was weak because she didn't scream back!"
Diane gasped, clutching her chest as if she had been physically struck. "Me?! You're blaming me?! You were the one who slept with Vanessa! You were the one who paraded your mistress in front of her at the highest-society gala of the year!"
"Because I thought she was trapped!" Everett roared, slamming his fist against the cheap wood of the dresser, rattling the water glasses. "I thought she was completely dependent on me! I thought I was invincible!"
A sharp knock at the motel door interrupted their screaming match.
Everett froze. For a brief, delusional second, his eyes lit up with a pathetic glimmer of hope. "Maybe... maybe it's a lawyer. Maybe Claire realized she still loves me and wants to negotiate—"
He yanked the door open.
It wasn't a lawyer. It stood two bailiffs from the local county court, accompanied by a repo man holding a clipboard.
"Everett Hale?" the lead bailiff asked flatly.
"Yes?" Everett whispered.
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"You are hereby served with a final eviction notice for all personal storage units linked to your name, as well as a writ of execution for outstanding legal fees stemming from yesterday’s corporate fraud indictment," the bailiff recited mechanically, shoving a thick stack of papers into Everett's chest. "You have two hours to clear out your remaining belongings from the municipal holding lot."
The bailiff turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Everett standing frozen in the open doorway, the cold winter wind whipping snow across the threshold of the dismal motel room.
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