Chapter 5 - The Family Lunch
Across town, Jasper sat at the head of a private dining table inside an expensive restaurant.
Gillian lifted a champagne glass.
“To family.”
Priscilla smiled and raised hers.
Jasper did not.
He had called Hailey seven times.
She had not answered once.
Gillian noticed.
“Stop looking at your phone.”
“She called Charles.”
The smile disappeared from Gillian’s face.
Priscilla lowered her glass.
“Why would she do that?”
“Because you left her diaper bag in the car,” Jasper snapped.
Priscilla shrugged.
“She could have asked nicely.”
“She did ask.”
Gillian leaned forward.
“What did Charles say?”
“He mentioned the debt.”
For the first time, his mother looked afraid.
Priscilla whispered, “Does Hailey know about the guarantee?”
“Not yet.”
“She will now,” Gillian said.
Jasper gripped the edge of the table.
“He has no proof the signature was forged.”
“He has Hailey.”
Priscilla looked between them.
“Can’t you just say she signed it and forgot?”
Jasper stared at her.
“That works only if she remains dependent on me.”
Gillian placed her glass down.
“Then bring her home.”
“She’s at the hospital.”
“Go get her.”
“She won’t come willingly.”
His mother’s face hardened.
“Hailey has never made a difficult decision in her life. She cries, then forgives. Give her flowers. Blame the stress. Tell her the baby needs both parents.”
Jasper had used that method before.
After screaming at Hailey for questioning his late nights, he arrived the next morning with breakfast.
After Gillian insulted Hailey at her baby shower, Jasper said his mother had “traditional values.”
After Priscilla borrowed Hailey’s car and wrecked it, Jasper accused Hailey of being materialistic.
Every wound was followed by a reason Hailey should feel guilty for bleeding.
But something had changed outside the hospital.
When Hailey called her father, her voice was no longer pleading.
It was calm.
Gillian noticed Jasper’s concern.
“Do not let Charles turn her against us.”
“He doesn’t need to,” Jasper said. “We did that ourselves.”
The honesty stunned them.
Priscilla looked toward the restaurant entrance.
“What if the refinancing collapses?”
Jasper knew the answer.
The company would miss payroll.
Three construction projects would stop.
The investors would learn that Jasper had concealed losses.
And the board would discover that the loan guarantee was fraudulent.
Everything he had built would collapse within days.
Gillian leaned closer.
“Then do whatever it takes to make her sign a new guarantee.”
Jasper looked at his mother.
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
“Hailey is exhausted, medicated, and emotional. Take the papers to the hospital before Charles hires a lawyer.”
Jasper stared down at his phone.
Then he called his assistant.
“Prepare a replacement guarantee.”
Priscilla smiled.
The family lunch continued.
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But at the hospital, Hailey had already requested that no member of the Cole family be allowed into her room without permission.
👉 Jasper was preparing one final signature trap—but Hailey was about to discover who had helped him forge the first one.
