Chapter 7 - Kelsey’s Panic and the Empty Bank Accounts
By noon, the legal counter-offensive reached its second phase. Kelsey Bennett found herself utterly abandoned. With Derek’s platinum cards frozen, the lease on her luxury SUV terminated, and her personal checking accounts locked under the civil asset forfeiture injunctions filed by my legal team, she was stranded in their sprawling suburban McMansion with no cash, no credit, and zero allies. Desperate and terrified, Kelsey drove her mother’s old sedan—the only vehicle left untied to Derek’s corporate debt—straight to my penthouse apartment. When the front desk intercom buzzed, I instructed security to send her up. Ten minutes later, the double doors of my penthouse opened, and Kelsey rushed inside, her designer makeup smeared with tears, her hair disheveled, looking nothing like the gloating woman who had filmed my humiliation the night before. “Claire! You have to help us! This is completely out of hand!” Kelsey sobbed, attempting to grasp my hands. I stepped back smoothly, keeping my arms crossed over my chest, letting her reach into empty air. “Do not touch me, Kelsey,” I said, my voice cutting through her theatrics like a razor. “And do not call me Claire. To you, I am Mrs. Bennett, or preferably, a stranger you will never see again.” Kelsey flinched as if struck, her tears momentarily pausing as genuine terror flickered in her eyes. “Derek is your son! They’re talking about ten years in federal prison! You can’t let your own flesh and blood be locked in a cage!” she shrieked, falling dramatically to her knees on the Persian rug. I looked down at her with cold, clinical detachment. “When Derek placed a bowl of dog food in front of his mother on her seventieth birthday and laughed while filming it, he officially severed every tie of flesh and blood,” I replied evenly. “He made his bed in a prison cell, Kelsey. Now you both get to lie in it.” Realizing that appeals to my maternal instinct were completely useless, Kelsey’s pathetic display of remorse instantly evaporated, replaced by a flash of the venomous arrogance that made her and Derek such a destructive match. She scrambled to her feet, wiping her face with the back of her hand, and glared at me with pure hatred. “You cold-hearted monster!” she spat. “You’ll regret this! When Derek’s defense attorneys expose your mental instability in court, you’ll lose everything!” She turned on her heel and stormed out of the penthouse, slamming the heavy double doors behind her. I didn't blink. The trap was fully sprung, and there was no escape.
