Chapter 6 - The Lobby of Stone Global
The ground floor of Stone Global Tower was a cathedral of black marble, glass, and brushed steel, designed to project absolute, unyielding power.
When Garrett and I walked through the revolving glass doors, flanked by four towering security guards in navy blazers, the entire lobby seemed to freeze.
Standing near the central security turnstiles was Mason.
He looked completely undone. His expensive Italian suit jacket was unbuttoned, his silk tie pulled loose at the collar, his dark hair disheveled as if he had been running his hands through it for hours. His eyes were bloodshot, surrounded by dark shadows of panic and exhaustion.
Standing beside him, clutching a leather designer handbag like a shield, was Chloe Palmer. Her immaculate hair was falling out of its neat bun, her mascara slightly smeared around her eyes.
When Mason saw us enter, his face lit up with a desperate, pathetic hope. He pushed past a junior security guard and stumbled toward us across the polished marble floor.
"Alyssa! Mr. Stone!" Mason shouted, his hands raised in a defensive, pleading gesture. "Thank God! You have to talk to the guard! They won't let me use the private elevator! There’s been a massive misunderstanding with the bank—"
He reached out to touch my arm, but before his fingers could even graze my sleeve, two of Garrett’s security guards stepped between us like a wall of solid muscle, blocking his path.
"Back up, Mr. Bennett," the head security officer growled, his hand resting on his belt.
Mason stopped, panting, his eyes shifting wildly from my father’s impassive face to mine.
"Alyssa, please!" Mason begged, his voice cracking loudly in the grand lobby, attracting the attention of dozens of corporate executives and staff who were watching from the mezzanine levels above. "Look at me! I’m your husband! We lost Daisy today—we are both grieving! We shouldn't be fighting like this while our baby is... while she’s gone!"
The utter hypocrisy of his words hit me like a slap across the face, but instead of making me scream, it filled me with a sudden, absolute disgust.
I stepped around the security guard and walked directly up to him.
"You don't get to say her name, Mason," I said, my voice carrying clearly through the silent lobby.
"Alyssa, I loved her!" Mason cried, tears finally spilling over his eyes—tears driven not by grief, but by the terrifying realization that his status, his wealth, and his freedom were slipping away from his fingers. "I did everything for her! I worked eighty hours a week to build a legacy for our family! Everything I did with Bennett Logistics was for you and Daisy!"
"Is that why you took nine thousand dollars from her life-support fund yesterday?" I asked, my voice rising just enough to reverberate off the marble walls. "To pay for Chloe’s sister’s cosmetic surgery?"
A sharp, collective gasp rippled through the onlookers on the upper balconies.
Mason’s face drained of all color. He glanced frantically at Chloe, who shrank back behind one of the giant marble pillars, trying to avoid the dozens of smartphones that had been pulled out by office workers recording the scene.
"That... that was an administrative loan!" Mason stammered, his hands shaking violently. "Chloe assured me the company accounts had sufficient liquidity! I didn't know the drug distributor would cancel the delivery! I swear to God, Alyssa, I thought the medicine was already on the truck!"
"You didn't answer my calls, Mason," I said, leaning in close so only he could hear the raw, icy fury in my words. "I called you forty-seven times while my daughter was choking on her own fluids. I called you while her heart rate dropped from one-twenty to forty. Where were you?"
Mason’s mouth worked uselessly, no sound coming out.
"You were at the Hyatt," I answered for him. "Celebrating a deal. Drinking champagne with Chloe while my daughter lay dying in a room that smelled of industrial floor cleaner."
"Mr. Bennett," Arthur Vance’s voice cut through the air like a razor as he stepped up beside Garrett.
Arthur held a thick white envelope in his gloved hand. He didn't hand it to Mason; he dropped it squarely onto the polished floor at Mason’s feet.
"What... what is that?" Mason whispered, looking down at the envelope as if it were a venomous snake.
"That is a formal notice of emergency forensic receivership," Arthur declared in a loud, clear voice for every camera in the lobby to hear. "As of eight-forty-five AM, Stone Global Enterprises, as the primary creditor holding seventy-eight percent of Bennett Logistics' secured debt, has declared your company insolvent."
"Insolvent?" Mason gasped. "No... no! I have assets! The freight terminals in Savannah—"
"Belong to Crestview Assets," Arthur interrupted smoothly. "Which is a subsidiary of Stone Global. Your lease has been terminated for material default. Furthermore, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, in conjunction with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, has issued an emergency order seizing all your personal and corporate accounts under the State Organized Crime and Fraud Prevention Act."
"Fraud?" Mason looked at my father, his knees beginning to buckle. "Mr. Stone... Garrett! Please! You can't do this! I am your son-in-law!"
Garrett Stone took two slow steps forward until he was standing inches from Mason. He looked down at the younger man with an expression of such pure, icy contempt that Mason actually took a step back, tripping over his own heels and falling hard onto the marble floor.
"You were never my son-in-law, Mason," Garrett said, his voice quiet, deep, and final. "You were merely a parasite that my daughter brought into my house. And parasites are removed."
At that exact moment, the heavy glass entrance doors swung open again.
Four uniformed officers from the Atlanta Police Department, accompanied by two investigators in plain clothes from the DA’s office, swept into the lobby.
The lead investigator pulled a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt and walked straight toward the man sitting on the floor.
"Mason Bennett?" the investigator asked.
May you like
Mason looked up, his face pale as paper, his eyes wide with absolute horror. "Yes..."
"You are under arrest for first-degree corporate embezzlement, grand larceny, and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of Daisy Bennett."
