“They treat us like dogs. Now they want us to give them half our fortune. I won’t stand for it!”
“The Finleys are powerful, but we’re not weak.
We’ve got friends in this town.”
“It’s time to show them our teeth. They need to
know we won’t be pushed around.”
“I’m calling my old buddies. If they help us, we
can hit back hard. We might even take some of their money.”
Garrison got excited. “If we can steal from them, we’ll be unstoppable. We could expand
our business beyond this town.”
“We could be like the Finleys, one of the
<
biggest families in the country!”
“Then the Finleys would never mess with us
again.”
Susan said, “We can’t be doormats forever. If
we don’t act now, we’ll regret it.”
Mr. Garrison’s eyes gleamed. “Let’s fight them.
They need to learn we can fight back.”
He called his friends.
But they didn’t answer.
Then, his phone rang. It was one of the biggest shareholders in his company.
He answered, and the shareholder snapped,
“Mr. Garrison, what has your son done?”
“That idiot has ruined our company’s reputation!”
く
“And the Finleys are holding a business
conference tonight, and they didn’t invite us!
They’re cutting us off!”
100
Mr. Garrison was confused. “What are you
talking about? Why are you yelling at my son?”
“And what’s this conference?”
The shareholder was furious. “Check the news!”
“Your company’s going down. The shareholders
are threatening to sell!”
Then he hung up.
Mr. Garrison checked the news and went pale.
The top story was about the Finleys‘
conference. They invited all the big names in
town, including his friends.
The pictures showed them smiling, raising their
<
glasses to Patty.
The comments poured in.
“The big shots are gathering to do something
big!”
“I heard Patty Finley’s taking everyone to expand into new territory! This is great for us!”
“Hey, where are the Garrisons?”
“Aren’t they the Finleys‘ lapdogs? They always
get invited. What happened?”
“I heard they broke up!”
“No way! They were gonna get married! That can’t be true!”
“OMG, check out the other story! It’s about Garrison! He’s so messed up! No wonder Patty dumped him!”
<
The other article had pictures and videos of
Garrison and Susan.
They were holding hands, going to movies, and
doing things in hotels and cars. There was also
a recording.
“Once I marry Patty, we’ll use her family to get to the top.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t dump you. I just want her money. Once we’re married, I’ll kill her family, and it’ll all be ours.”
Susan laughed. “You better get on it! I’m
pregnant with your baby. After you kill them, we’ll get married!”
The comments were brutal.
“Those two deserve to die!”
“Garrison seems nice, but he’s a monster! Who
<
would want him?”
