Chapter 13 - BEGGING AT THE GATES
A year later, Victoria Sterling was released on medical parole due to failing health, her once-immaculate blonde hair now streaked with gray and her luxury wardrobe replaced by simple thrift-store clothes.
Desperate and abandoned by all her socialite friends, Victoria walked two miles from the train station to the iron gates of Claire’s Hamptons estate. Rain began to fall, soaking her worn coat as she pressed the call button on the security post.
"Claire, please!" Victoria begged into the intercom speaker, her voice trembling with fragile desperation. "I am an old, sick woman! Just let me see my grandson for five minutes before I die!"
Inside the estate's sunroom, Claire sat at a white marble desk, reviewing quarterly investment reports while little Leo played happily with wooden blocks on the rug beside her.
Marcus walked into the room, holding a tablet displaying the real-time security feed of the weeping old woman standing in the rain outside the gate.
"Shall I have local law enforcement remove her for trespassing, ma'am?" Marcus asked respectfully.
May you like
Claire looked at the monitor for a long moment, watching the woman who had once treated her with such condescending arrogance. She reached down, gently stroking her son's soft hair before looking up at Marcus.
"Give her a dry coat, umbrella, and a one-way bus ticket to her sister's home in Ohio," Claire ordered calmly. "And tell her that if she ever approaches this property again, I will enforce the full civil penalty against her trust."
