Chapter 3 - The Blueprint of Ruin

I walked upstairs to the master suite, stripping off my freezing, heavy clothes and stepping into a hot shower just long enough to stop my violent shivering. I changed into dry leggings and a thick sweater. I was operating with a crystalline, mechanical precision.

I sat down at the desk by the window and opened my laptop.

First, I pulled up the rental agreement for the lake house. The property was booked entirely in my name. It was tied to my credit card, my security deposit, and my legal liability.

Then, I opened a highly encrypted secondary file folder.

For years, Jason had strutted around our social circle bragging that his family’s commercial landscaping company was “basically his empire.” It wasn’t. Three years earlier, when the business had nearly collapsed under the weight of his father's terrible financial management, I had quietly invested a massive sum of my own money to keep it alive and save them from bankruptcy.

In exchange, my attorney had insisted on protecting my investment. I secretly owned forty-two percent of Parker Landscaping Holdings.

And Jason, in his arrogant stupidity, had apparently forgotten that the shareholder agreement contained a very strict, zero-tolerance misconduct clause tied to company assets. Assets he had recently been using for his own personal vacations. Including the two massive, expensive company trucks currently parked in the gravel driveway outside.

I picked up my phone. My first call was to the emergency line of the property management company.

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My second call was to my corporate attorney.

I packed my suitcase, zipped it shut, and walked back downstairs to the patio doors, waiting in the shadows of the kitchen.