The Crumbling Pillar
The air on the other end of the line was filled with the soft, tranquil sounds of the lake—a sharp contrast to the suffocating tension in the Lance sitting room. Amber Ann had moved out toward the water, seeking a bit more privacy. The open air refreshed her and gave her a bit more strength. She silently released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"Daddy," Amber began, her voice carrying a weary weight. "I don't want to do this. I've spent my life trying not to be like Jessica."
"And what's wrong with being like me? I have always been successful." Jessica froze when Damon Sr's head snapped toward her. She slid back into her seat and closed her eyes.
There was silence for a long moment before anyone spoke again.
Amber sighed "Daddy this is between Jessica and I. The family doesn't need to be dragged into it."
Damon Sr nodded in fatherly pride while Angelica pursed her lips.
"Amber Ann dear, if Dan is the father of these babies he needs to take responsibility. I am sorry that you are in the middle of this situation darling, but what is right is right."
"Before you say anything, Amber, listen to me." Damon Sr. Interjected, his voice cutting through the room like a scalpel. He stood tall, looking directly at Jessica, who was shrinking into her velvet chair. "The time for being noble is over. This family needs to stop coddling people who are clearly selfish and narcissistic. The truth isn't a weapon, Amber; it's a necessity. Now, tell me everything."
Amber took a deep breath, and then she laid in.
She didn't lead with emotion; she led with the cold, hard facts of a scientist. She detailed the visit to the Private Eye and the evidence Omar Johnson had unearthed. She spoke of the fertility clinic, the "unorthodox" methods used by Dr. Shay, and the undeniable fact that the pregnancy was a calculated move to trap a man and a fortune.
As Amber spoke, Angelica's hand, which had been protectively stroking Jessica's hair, suddenly twitched. She looked down at her eldest daughter as if she were seeing a stranger. As the details of the paternity fraud became clear, Angelica gasped, recoiling as if Jessica's very skin had become toxic. She pulled her hand away, clutching it to her chest as if she had touched something plagued.
"It... it can't be true," Angelica whispered, her voice trembling. "Jessica, tell me she's lying!"
"There are recordings, Mommy," Amber's voice came through the speaker, calm and unflinching. "I'll be honest—I didn't listen to them myself because I didn't want that garbage in my head. But I know they exist. I can have Omar send them to you and Daddy right now if you need to hear her voice planning this with Christopher Patrick."
"I want to hear them," Damon Sr. said – no hesitation in his voice - his jaw set in a hard line.
But Amber wasn't finished. "But the pregnancy is only the tip of the scheme. She's working with a city planner named Karen Sanns. They are trying to rezone Blue Serene to freeze my permits and bankrupt the resort. She isn't just trying to get Dan back, Daddy. She's trying to destroy my new enterprise."
Damon Sr. stood up abruptly, his glass forgotten on the table. He looked at Jessica fiercely, his eyes blazing with a cold fire. The betrayal of a "romantic" lie was one thing, but the calculated, professional sabotage of her own sister's empire was a bridge too far for the elder businessman.
"I... Daddy, please! She's twisting it!" Jessica scrambled to her feet, her hands reaching out in a desperate plea. "Amber is just trying to turn you against me! She's always been jealous of me!"
Damon Sr. didn't even look at her. He leaned down and spoke into the phone. "Is there anymore Amber?"
"Yes but I would rather not talk about it in front of Jessica. I will send you a text."
Damon Sr nodded again in approval. "Good. Send it now. I will take care of things here. And Amber, I am very proud of you."
"Thank you daddy."
He ended the call with a definitive click. The silence that followed was heavier than any shout. Damon Sr. looked from his wife, who was staring at the floor in shock, to Jessica, who was trembling with a mixture of fear and rage.
He let out a long, ragged sigh—the sound of a man admitting a profound failure.
"I have been enabling you for thirty years," Damon said, his voice devoid of its usual warmth. "I thought your 'episodes' were just the growing pains of a spirited woman. But I was wrong. I've been blind."
He turned to Angelica, whose eyes were unfocused and watery. "And there's more, Angelica. Things I didn't want to tell you because I wanted to protect the 'image' of our family.
Jessica didn't come home because she missed us. She came home because she robbed her own charity abroad. She's been living like a queen on stolen donor money, and she only crawled back to us when the accounts were drained and the walls started closing in."
Angelica sat down heavily, her body appearing to deflate as the last of her illusions vanished. She looked at her daughter—her "glamorous, humanitarian" daughter—and saw a thief.
Damon Sr. turned back to Jessica. He didn't yell. He didn't even look angry anymore; he just looked finished.
"I am not cleaning up your messes anymore, Jessica. Not with Dan, not with the law, and certainly not with your sister. You wanted to play a high-stakes game? Well, you've lost. You're on your own."