Chapter 4 - THE EXIT
"It's a lie," Lila whispered, but the defiance in her voice had collapsed into hollow panic. "It’s a setup. Maya set me up. She’s working with him to destroy me!"
"I don't even know Mr. Voss," I said, my voice trembling as the sheer magnitude of what was happening crashed down on me.
"You don't know him?" Mom lunged forward, pointing a manicured nail an inch from my eyes. "Then why is he here, Maya? Why did he come to your sister’s wedding instead of handling this at an office? You invited him! You wanted to humiliate us in front of Jake’s entire family!"
"She didn't invite me," Elias said. The icy calm in his tone was more terrifying than any scream. "I invited myself. I wanted to see the face of the person who thought they were clever enough to embezzle from Voss Fintech while masquerading as an engineering prodigy."
He took the heavy silver tray out of my hands and set it roughly on a nearby table. mini shrimp cocktails sloshed against the edges, cocktail sauce splashing across the white linen.
"Take off the apron, Maya," Elias told me.
"Don't you take orders from him!" Mom grabbed my wrist, her grip digging painfully into my skin. "You stay right here and fix this! You tell this man you lied! You tell him that code was Lila’s, or so help me God, you are dead to this family!"
The threat hung in the air, heavy and poisonous.
For ten years, that threat had kept me in line. *Do what Lila needs, Maya. Lila is fragile. Lila has potential. You're the older sister, you have to sacrifice.*
I had given up my college savings so Lila could go to an out-of-state private school. I had taken the blame when she crashed Dad’s car at nineteen. I had worked two jobs to send her rent money while she "networked" in San Francisco. And when she begged for the algorithmic framework I had spent two years conceptualizing, I gave it to her because I loved her.
I looked at my mother’s furious face. Then at my father, who was staring at the floor, refusing to defend me. Then at Lila, whose eyes were filled with pure, unadulterated venom.
I pulled my wrist out of my mother’s grip.
With slow, deliberate movements, I reached behind my neck, untied the black catering apron, and let it drop to the polished hardwood floor.
"I didn't lie, Mom," I said, looking her dead in the eye. "I wrote every single line of that code. And I didn't steal a dime from anyone."
"Maya, you ungrateful little bitch—" Mom raised her hand.
Elias stepped smoothly into her path, his frame completely blocking her. "I would advise you not to complete that motion, Mrs. Vance. Unless you want assault charges added to the fraud indictment your daughter is facing by Monday morning."
Mom’s hand froze mid-air. She choked on her own breath, trembling with impotent rage.
"Jake," Lila sobbed, grabbing her new husband’s lapels. "Jake, do something! Call your uncle! He’s an attorney! Stop them!"
"My uncle does commercial real estate, Lila," Jake said, his voice flat, completely detached. He looked at her wedding dress, then at the champagne puddle on the floor. "Did you take that money?"
"Jake!"
"Did you take four hundred grand from your company?" he barked, his voice finally cracking with fury.
Lila didn't answer. She just wept, burying her face in her hands.
Elias touched the small of my back, guiding me toward the grand double doors of the banquet hall. "Let’s go, Maya."
I didn't look back. I walked past seventy silent, gaping guests, past the towering ice sculpture melting under the spotlights, past the life I had spent a decade desperately trying to hold together.
As the heavy oak doors shut behind us, the muffled sound of Lila’s shrieking screams echoed down the marble hallway.
We stepped into the cool, crisp autumn night air. A sleek black town car was idling at the curb, its headlights slicing through the darkness.
"Get in," Elias said, opening the rear door for me.
I stopped on the pavement, clutching my purse to my chest, suddenly realizing I was standing in the dark with a billionaire who had just demolished my entire family.
"Who are you really, Mr. Voss?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "And how did you know that code was mine?"
Elias looked at me over the roof of the car, his gray eyes unreadable in the moonlight.
May you like
"Get in the car, Maya," he said quietly. "Because Lila didn't just steal from my company. She stole from someone who has been looking for you for five years."
***
