Is this destiny?

"Why are you fighting?", Gabriella asked when she entered the study.

"Mommy!", Darlene cried. "Daddy is going to leave us in the mud."

Gabriella exhaled. Well, he already gave hints that he will do so when they were at the neighbor\'s house and Gabriella knows that Arthur meant it. After all, if he is not a selfish prick who only thinks about himself, he would not sleep around and come home to pretend to be a great husband and a father. She told herself to stay calm. Arguing will only push Arthur away, and this requires a gentle touch.

"Calm down, Darlene.", Gabriella said with a meek smile that surprised both Darlene and Arthur. "We are all under pressure, and your father is feeling it the most. After all, he is not only thinking about his reputation but about the company and the whole family. The business and the two of us are connected to him and any taints on us will affect him as well."

Arthur frowned. He knew that Gabriella is sneaky and that she will try to trick him into paying for everyone, but at least Darlene stopped screaming. 

Darlene huffed. "How can you tell me to calm down, when everything is collapsing!?"

Gabriella raised her hand. "We all agree that Aiden White has the power to make our troubles go away, and for that to happen, we need a total of twenty-one million dollars. I suggest that we put in the open all the resources we have at hand and see how much that is. If we can\'t cover the whole amount, then we will see what will be cut out. How does that sound?"

Darlene\'s face contorted into an ugly scowl when she realized: "You want to cut me off. You are just like dad!"

Gabriella denied it. "No one said that. But arguing amongst each other will not achieve anything."

Arthur gave Gabriella an approving nod.

"Sounds like a plan. Let\'s…", his next words were interrupted when he got a call from the bank.

"Mr. Payne, you requested a money transfer, but the bank from Switzerland denied it with an explanation that there are no sufficient funds…" Arthur didn\'t hear the rest.

"Thank you for letting me know. I will follow up with them.", Arthur said after some time.

He didn\'t care that Darlene and Gabriella are there. He dialed the long international number and requested to find out why the money transfer failed.

Fifteen minutes and several phone calls later…

"Dad? Are you OK?", Darlene asked with concern obvious in her voice. She never saw Arthur so visibly distressed.

"No, I am not…", he said weakly. "All my accounts are cleaned up."

"Cleaned up...", Darlene repeated and a second later she inhaled sharply. "Someone stole our money?"

"Not someone. They say that it was me."

Darlene frowned. "Did you get the money and forgot about it?"

"Of course, not!", Arthur said irritably. How can he forget taking sixty-two million dollars? But he will not say that to his wife and daughter because for them, he can barely collect ten million. However, the reality is that the money is gone. Completely gone.

Darlene glanced at her mother, looking for some reaction at this news that money is gone, but she saw that Gabriella is also pale and barely responsive, similar to how Arthur is.

"Mom? Are you OK?"

Gabriella snapped out of her daze and screamed at Darlene: "How can I be OK!? Someone is attacking us not only online, but they took our money as well!"

Arthur thought that his head will burst from anxiety. And Gabriella shouting is not helping! He checked the time. It\'s past 3 PM. He needs to call Aiden and tell him how much help he agrees to. Will he be able to collect at least five million dollars? At this point, he is not sure.

Arthur remembered that before they left, they signed a third contract related to collateral: if he does not provide an answer until 6 PM, the villa and the land will automatically belong to Aiden, while the apartments from Darlene will belong to Sarah.

"Why is this point here?", Arthur asked.

Aiden smirked. "It\'s insurance that you are not wasting my time."

"I would not dare do such a thing!", Arthur immediately said while scribbling his initials next to that paragraph. "Darlene, you also initial here!"

Back to the present…

Of course, he wants Aiden\'s help and he needs to call him within the next three hours, but how can he do that if he does not have five million dollars? Assuming that he has five million dollars, how will he decide between himself and his business?

He swallowed hard and struggled to inhale. It seems that the room ran out of oxygen.

"Daddy?", Darlene called. "What is going on?"

Arthur forced a few deep breaths and confirmed that he is fine. "Let\'s see how much money we have…"

Darlene and Gabrielle provided information on their immediate funds, and how much they estimate to get from stocks. Arthur was adding that up and another call interrupted him…

Arthur bolted from his seat and hollered: "What do you mean, my accounts are frozen!?"

Both Darlene and Gabriella jolted.

The two women in the room didn\'t hear that the bank employee was telling Arthur: "Mr. Payne, the order came from the district attorney. All your personal and business accounts are under audit, and you can\'t access the funds…"

Arthur flung the phone across the room angrily.

"Arthur?", this time Gabriella called. "What is…?" Her question was cut off when her cell phone rang.

She picked up the call and heard that Darlene\'s phone is ringing as well.

A few minutes later, three members of the Payne family sat in silence.

They confirmed that all their accounts are frozen. The district attorney filed charges about tax evasion and underhanded deals and the judge approved to freeze their assets.

"Master…", the butler called from the door. "The police are here."

"What?", Arthur asked in disbelief.

The police pushed butler to the side. And ten men and two women in blue entered the study, together with a man in a brown suit.

"Mr. Payne, you are under arrest for money…"

"Who gets arrested for money fraud charges?", Arthur interrupted the man in the brown suit angrily.

A man in the brown suit stood among the police officers and looked at Arthur. "It is not my duty to explain, but I will give you the courtesy. You are labeled as a flight risk, so you will be held in custody without bail."

Arthur inhaled sharply. "Flight risk?"

The man nodded. "The district attorney\'s office has evidence that you are selling off your assets, and yesterday you emptied the number of your accounts…"

Arthur didn\'t hear the rest. His arms were being tugged as someone handcuffed him from the back.

When he was done with Arthur, the man turned to Gabriella. "Mrs. Payne, you are under arrest for making false claims about your beauty products and deceiving people."

Gabriella bolted on her feet. "What? Since when is district attorney dealing with these small things?"

The man in the suit shook his head. "This is not from the district attorney. It\'s a private joint lawsuit by four independent parties who claim that you deceived them for large amounts of money. Because you are also marked as a flight risk, we will keep you in the custody until the bail is set."

Darlene watched as her mother was being handcuffed and both of her parents were taken away.

Arthur remembered and started shouting from the hallway. "Darlene! Call Aiden White! Tell him what is going on. If we don\'t call him by six, we will lose everything!"

The policeman stifled a laugh. "Do you think that Aiden White will help you?"

Arthur didn\'t want to talk about the deal they made, but there is one undeniable fact: "We are neighbors." Arthur smirked smugly. Yup, he can use his relationship with Whites already! Now the police will need to handle him with care.

Arthur\'s face fell when he heard the police officer say: "Is that the same neighbor because of whom you called 9-1-1 to complain about the noise?"

Arthur felt wronged. If Aiden and Sarah didn\'t bring that up, why is this man talking about it? "How do you know about that?"

"I was the one who went to check on them yesterday. Nice people. Lots of kids."

"And the sandwiches were tasty.", the policewoman from Arthur\'s left added. "They didn\'t ask who called the police to complain about the noise. They said that they know…"

Arthur felt the blood draining from his face.

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