Chapter 10 - The Eviction Notice
The transition of power was swift, ruthless, and legally airtight.
By Thursday morning, Arthur Vance and Harold Sterling had completed the emergency registration of the trust shares with the state commercial registry. With forty percent of the equity and the backing of two minority board members who were sick of my father’s incompetence, I signed the corporate resolution removing Robert Cole as Chief Executive Officer.
At two in the afternoon, Ryan drove me to the Oakridge estate.
The massive wrought-iron gates were open. Two sheriff’s deputies sat parked in the circular driveway, their cruisers idling beside my mother’s luxury SUV.
As Ryan helped me out of the passenger seat, the front doors of the mansion flew open. My mother ran out down the stone steps, her hair unkempt, her silk dressing gown billowing behind her.
"What is the meaning of this?!" she shrieked, waving an official sheriff's document in the air. "There are deputies in my foyer telling me I have forty-eight hours to vacate the property! Maya, tell them this is a mistake!"
My father stepped out behind her, looking hollowed out, as if twenty years of life had been stripped from him in forty-eight hours.
"It's not a mistake, Eleanor," Harold Sterling said, stepping out from behind a deputy. "The estate belongs to the Arthur Cole Living Trust. And Maya Cole is now the sole trustee and sole owner."
"You can't do this!" Eleanor screamed, rushing toward me with her hands clawed like talons. "I raised you! I gave you life! You wouldn't have anything without this family!"
Ryan stepped forward instantly, his body blocking her path, his voice low and dangerous. "Take one more step toward her, Eleanor, and the deputies will arrest you for violation of the protective order."
My mother froze, her chest heaving, her eyes darting between Ryan, the armed deputies, and me.
"Where is Paige?" I asked quietly, looking past them into the darkened grand foyer.
My father looked down at his shoes, unable to meet my eyes. "She’s in her room. She hasn't eaten in two days. The district attorney rejected our plea deal this morning, Maya. They’re charging her with felony battery with an enhancement for intentional grievous harm. She’s looking at three to five years in state prison."
"Then she should start packing her bags," I said, my voice steady, devoid of the fear that had ruled my childhood. "Because by noon on Saturday, the locks on this house will be changed. You have two days to take your personal clothes and get out."
"Maya, please!" Eleanor dropped to her knees on the cold pea-gravel driveway, weeping hysterically, the illusion of her high-society elegance completely shattered. "Where are we supposed to go? Robert has no salary! We have no money!"
"You can stay in a motel," I said coldly. "Or maybe Paige can make another TikTok video and ask her followers to pay for your rent."
May you like
I turned my back on them and walked back to Ryan’s car, leaving my mother sobbing in the dirt.
***