Part 16: The Arrival at the Savannah Terminal
## Part 16: The Arrival at the Savannah Terminal
The rain in Savannah was a thick, cold sheet of silver glass that blurred the lines of the cargo cranes along the riverbank.
My mother stood in the lobby of the terminal building, her cheap wool coat wet at the collar, her fingers trembling as she clutched a worn leather handbag—the last piece of luxury she had managed to hide from the liquidation team.
She looked small beneath the massive concrete pillars of the executive foyer.
The diamonds were gone, replaced by a simple brass ring she had bought at a pharmacy discount bin to keep her finger from looking bare.
"Amanda!" she wept as I walked out of the private elevator, Marcus standing two steps behind my shoulder.
"They came into my room at dawn! They took the mink coat your father bought me for our anniversary! They took the silver vanity set my mother left me!"
"They say everything was purchased with corporate default money! You have to tell them to stop, Amanda! I’m your mother! You can't let me live like a beggar!"
I didn't walk across the marble floor to touch her hand.
I stood by the security desk, my hands deep in the pockets of my tailored navy coat.
"The mink coat was purchased with a credit card registered to the Columbia factory's employee healthcare fund, Eleanor," I said, my voice cutting through her tears.
"The silver vanity set was used as collateral on the 2023 loan note Todd signed."
"The federal agents didn't take your things because they want to hurt you."
"They took them because they belong to the families of the men who worked thirty years in your husband's warehouses without a retirement premium."
She fell back against the glass partition, her voice dropping into a high, pathetic whimper that had no authority left behind it.
"We didn't know the accounts were illegal, Amanda!" she cried.
"Your father told me it was a corporate dividend! He said we had earned it after all the years of stress in the city!"
"You earned forty-two thousand dollars in criminal interest last year alone, Eleanor," I said levelly.
"And you used it to buy Rachel a spot on a country-club seating chart while your own daughter was paying for her own office lease."
"The presentation is dead."
"The Savannah escrow fund has just been seized by federal order."
"Your father’s partners are being arrested in their offices downtown right now."
Two local police cruisers pulled up outside the glass doors, their flashing blue and red lights reflecting off the wet marble floorboards like a warning.
They didn't step inside with weapons.
They stood by the entrance, their hands resting flat against their utility belts, waiting for my signal.
"Marcus, escort her to the transport," I commanded, turning my back to the lobby.
May you like
"The senior facility in North Columbia has a room waiting for her, and the local van is outside to ensure she arrives safely."
My mother let out a final, choked sob as Marcus gently guided her through the heavy glass doors into the cold rain, leaving the foyer silent, clean, and entirely empty of the Collins family pride.
