Chapter 2: Breakfast at Eight
Chapter 2: Breakfast at Eight
The next morning arrived wrapped in silence.
By seven-thirty, the dining table looked like something from a luxury magazine.
Fresh croissants.
Belgian waffles.
Smoked salmon.
Hand-cut fruit.
Fresh flowers.
Fine china polished until it gleamed beneath the crystal chandelier.
Exactly the breakfast Daniel had demanded.
At precisely eight o'clock, he walked into the dining room wearing a tailored navy suit, adjusting his cuff links.
He stopped.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Good," he said with satisfaction. "Looks like you finally learned your place."
Evelyn entered behind him, carrying herself with the smug confidence of someone expecting victory.
"I told you she'd come around."
Daniel reached for the coffee pot.
Then he noticed the people already seated around the table.
His smile disappeared.
My attorney, Richard Hayes, calmly closed a leather folder.
Across from him sat Margaret Collins, Senior Vice President of the private bank that managed my family's assets.
Beside her sat Victor Monroe, chairman of Monroe Holdings—the company Daniel proudly introduced as his family's business.
Victor wasn't smiling.
Daniel's hand froze in midair.
"Dad?"
Victor slowly looked up.
"You seem surprised to see me."
Evelyn frowned.
"What is everyone doing here?"
I remained standing near the window.
For the first time in years, no one ordered me to sit.
Richard opened his folder.
"I believe this breakfast is the appropriate place to discuss several legal matters."
Daniel laughed nervously.
"What kind of joke is this?"
"No joke," Richard replied.
He pressed a small speaker onto the table.
The recording began.
Daniel's voice filled the dining room.
"A wife has to be corrected."
A sharp slap echoed from the recording.
Then Evelyn's calm voice followed.
"Your father understood that very well."
Silence swallowed the room.
Victor slowly removed his glasses.
He looked at his son as though seeing a stranger.
"Did you hit your wife?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Dad... it's not what it sounds like."
"It sounds exactly like what it is."
No one touched the breakfast.
No one spoke.
May you like
Except Richard.
"And this is only the beginning."
