The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Eric continued, "Mr. Winslow's company was in dire straits to begin with. It barely had enough business funds, and he only managed to scrape together the money after Mr. Weston and Mr. Huxham returned him the contractual funds from before. "But before he could put the money to good use, his precious son decided to stir up a mountain of debts. The only funds Mr. Winslow has can't cover Shane's dues at all! He'd go bankrupt if he were to side with Shane!"

All this had happened just moments ago, and Eric had been dying to share the news with somebody since learning about it. Thankfully, he didn't have to bottle it up for too long, for he caught Sasha and Annalise gossiping among themselves. Sasha was bewildered. "Is Shane the proverbial prodigal son?" She had believed she was a prodigal daughter for not contributing to the family, but Shane took that concept to a whole new level. Next to him, she was practically golden. Eric sighed. "He probably is."

I was more concerned with what happened after that. "So, what did Mr. Winslow do?"

Eric looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. He spoke in hushed tones. "Mr. Winslow was so furious that he pointed at Shane's debtors and snapped at them, saying, 'I've already made it clear that I won't be paying his debts! Now stop bothering me!" Having quoted Carlisle verbatim, Eric continued excitedly, "And these people were so worried that Shane wouldn't pay them back that they gathered outside his house to demand he cough up the money!

"Now, he wouldn't be so stupid as to give the money back after he was cut off. Guess what he did to make Mr. Winslow pay instead."

Sasha's gut told her Shane had done something stupid. She pressed eagerly, "What did he do?"

I was all ears, too.

Eric chuckled villainously. "He told Mr. Winslow he knocked up his girlfriend and threatened to have her abort the baby if Mr. Winslow refuses to pay his debts!"

I frowned, and Sasha grimaced in disgust. We exchanged a look as she muttered, "This guy is something else. I kind of feel sorry for Mr. Winslow. He's saddled with a loser of a son." I agreed. "Mr. Winslow is in for a long ride."

Eric waited until we had let out our musings before continuing, "Mr. Winslow was shocked by Shane's audacity but he had made up his mind and held his ground. He told Shane he couldn't care less if they aborted the baby and that he wouldn't stop them.

"You'd think Shane would be smart to leave after that. The wise thing to do would be to wait for Mr. Winslow to cool down before apologizing to him and burying the hatchet Unfortunately..."

Eric paused deliberately, leaving us to make our guesses. Sasha asked, "Shane did something stupid again?"

I was trying to guess what Shane might have said or done when Eric nodded. "That's right. Shane had a public meltdown. Mr. Winslow was so outraged that he ended up hospitalized. Rumor has it that he nearly had an aneurysm.

"Thankfully, the hospital treated him in time, and his condition is now stable. If my estimation is correct, the Winslows would have released a statement by now. Check your phones." Sasha and I fished out our phones to search for the latest news. Sure enough, Winslow Group had announced that Carlisle was officially cutting ties with Shane.