The byline belonged to Patricia Morrison, Lifestyle Editor.
I didn’t recognize the name, but I recognized the strategy.
Cody had called in favors, used his banking connections to get this story placed exactly where it would do maximum damage to my reputation.
Smart.
Very smart.
For the first time since this whole mess started, I felt a grudging respect for my opponents.
They weren’t just entitled trust‑fund babies throwing tantrums.
They were strategic, calculating.
They understood that in a small city like Spokane, reputation was everything.
One well‑placed newspaper article could destroy decades of hard work.
They had declared total war.
I folded the newspaper carefully and set it aside, my mind already shifting into the methodical planning mode that had built my business from nothing.
This wasn’t about airport pickups anymore.
This wasn’t about Christmas dinner or mortgage payments.
This was about winning.
I pulled out my laptop and began typing names into search engines.
Cody Jenkins.
Catherine Jenkins.
Isabella Flores.
Their social media profiles.
Their connections.
Their habits.
Their weaknesses.
Everything they’d foolishly made public over the years.
If they wanted to play chess, I’d show them what a real strategist looked like.
I glanced at my wall calendar.
December 18th.
Seven days until Christmas.
Seven days to plan something they’d never forget.
I spent the next three days living in a different world.
Not the world where I was Dennis Flores, the broken‑down old man who let his family walk all over him.
This was the world where I was Dennis Flores, businessman, strategic thinker, someone who’d built something from nothing and wasn’t about to let a bunch of entitled parasites destroy what I’d worked forty years to build.
My laptop became command central.
Social media profiles filled my browser tabs like playing cards in a high‑stakes game.
Cody Jenkins—retired First National Bank manager, member of the Spokane Country Club, treasurer of the Inland Northwest Business Leaders Association. A man who’d spent his career in positions of trust and influence. A man with a lot to lose.
Catherine’s Instagram painted a perfect picture of refined living–charity luncheons, wine tastings, vacation photos from Coeur d’Alene tagged with #blessedlife. Every post carefully curated to project success and sophistication.
Comments from friends praising her “elegant taste” and “inspiring lifestyle.”
All built on other people’s money.
Including mine.
Isabella’s Facebook timeline told the real story.
Posts about “our beautiful home” with photos of the kitchen I’d paid for.
Check‑ins at expensive restaurants during the months when I’d covered their utility bills.
A status update from last week:
So excited for Christmas dinner with family. Can’t wait to show off our hosting skills.
Our hosting skills.
Our home.
Our success.
The narcissism was breathtaking.
But it was Michael’s LinkedIn profile that gave me the final piece I needed.
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