Chapter 5 - The Roof of Lies
I had absolutely no choice but to step into the elevator car.
The two massive men grabbed my arms and pinned me firmly against the metal wall.
My father pressed the button for the roof access level.
He told me I looked terrible and suggested I should have stayed away from his basement.
I spat on his expensive shoes and demanded to know what he actually wanted from me.
He wiped his shoe calmly and said he wanted absolute peace for our family.
The elevator shuddered to a halt, and the doors opened to the windy, desolate hospital roof.
The men dragged me out into the cold air and forced me to my knees near the concrete ledge.
My father walked over and looked down at the glittering city lights below.
He explained that the ledger Eli had found contained the absolute truth about my psychiatric history.
He claimed that during my breakdown, I had committed severe financial crimes and blamed them on his company.
He said he had spent years covering up my mess just to keep me out of federal prison.
I laughed in his face and told him nobody would ever believe his ridiculous lies.
He turned around slowly and reached into his tailored suit jacket.
He told me that if I did not sign a document granting him full custody of Eli, he would hand the ledger over to the district attorney tomorrow.
He promised I would rot in a federal cell while my son grew up calling him dad.
I refused to give up my son to a monster.
He sighed heavily, pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket, and tossed it onto the ground in front of me.
He told me to look at the single page he had ripped from the hidden book.
I leaned forward and examined the neat, handwritten columns of dates and initials.
My breath caught in my throat as I recognized the exact date logged on the final line.
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It was the exact day my wife had supposedly died in a random, tragic car accident.
Next to her initials was a massive payment authorized directly by my father.
