I let the phone ring twice before answering.
“Dad… what is this?” Brandon’s voice wasn’t angry this time. It was tight. Uncertain. Afraid.
In the background, I could hear movement—drawers opening, Amber’s voice rising, sharp and panicked.
“There are people here,” he said. “They’re saying the house has been sold. That we need to vacate. Tell me this is some kind of mistake.”
I leaned back in my chair, looking out the window at the quiet street below.
“No mistake,” I said calmly.
Silence.
Then, “You can’t do that. This is my house.”
“That,” I replied, “is exactly where you’re wrong.”
He started talking faster now, the confidence cracking. “Dad, if this is about last night, I said I’d handle it. You didn’t have to go this far—”
“Thirty times,” I interrupted.
He stopped.
“I counted every one,” I said. “And with each one, you made it clearer that you don’t see me as your father anymore. Just an old man you could put your hands on without consequences.”
Amber’s voice cut in from his end. “Give me the phone.”
A second later, she was on the line. “This is harassment. You’re trying to control us. We have rights—”
“No,” I said evenly. “You had privileges.”
That shut her up.
I continued, “The house belongs to Redwood Capital. Always has. I let you live there because I believed you’d build something meaningful inside it. Instead, you filled it with arrogance.”
Brandon came back on, his voice smaller now. “Where are we supposed to go?”
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