Chapter 5 - Face to Face
"Sarah, please," William begged, his voice cracking as he reached out toward her. "This has gone too far. Look at what you're doing to my firm! The accounts are frozen, the police are at my office, and Al-Mansoor just canceled the Cabo contract! You're destroying everything we built!"
Sarah looked at him, her face completely expressionless. "We didn't build it, William. I audited it. You spent it."
Chloe stepped out from behind William, her cheeks flushed with anger. "Sarah, you are being completely unreasonable! Will made a mistake, okay? But you're destroying his life over a stupid fling! Do you have any idea how much money he's losing every hour those accounts are locked?"
Sarah turned her gaze slowly toward Chloe. The younger woman winced under the intense, icy glare.
"Chloe," Sarah said, her voice dripping with quiet disdain. "Three days ago, you walked into my home while I was nursing a sick newborn child. You stood in my foyer and told me I was a 'stagnant pool.' You told me William sent you to tell me to step aside."
Chloe swallowed hard, shifting uncomfortably on her high heels. "I... I was just..."
"You were using a corporate credit card registered under my marital estate to purchase your clothes, your rent, and your jewelry," Sarah interrupted smoothly. "Did William tell you that every dollar he transferred into 'CD Creative Consulting LLC' was technically stolen from a joint marital account opened during our marriage?"
Chloe froze, turning to glare at William. "What?"
"In this state," Sarah continued, turning back to William, "dissolution of marital assets for the purpose of maintaining an extramarital affair is classified as fraudulent dissipation. Under state law, I am entitled to one hundred percent reimbursement of every single cent you spent on Chloe, plus interest, plus punitive damages."
"Sarah, please!" William pleaded, dropping to his knees right there in the hospital hallway, completely unconcerned with the nurses and doctors watching. "I was foolish! I lost my head! Chloe meant nothing to me! It was just a distraction because I was stressed about the business!"
Chloe’s eyes snapped wide. "WHAT did you just say?!"
William ignored Chloe completely, tears streaming down his face as he looked up at Sarah. "I love you, Sarah! You're my wife! Leo is my son! Please, just instruct your lawyer to unfreeze the personal accounts so I can pay the hospital bill! Let's sit down and talk like adults! I'll break up with Chloe right now! I'll never see her again!"
Chloe gasped, taking a step back in absolute betrayal. "Will! You coward! You told me you loved me! You told me you were going to divorce her anyway!"
"Shut up, Chloe!" William spat, turning his head to glare at her with pure disgust. "You ruined my life! You came to my house behind my back!"
"YOU invited me into your life!" Chloe screamed back. "You paid for my apartment! You promised me a equity share in the new firm!"
Sarah stood watching the two of them scream at each other in the middle of the corridor like squabbling children. A small, cold smile touched the corners of her lips.
"Are you finished?" Sarah asked quietly.
Both William and Chloe stopped, turning to look at her.
"William," Sarah said, stepping closer. "You didn't care when Leo was turning blue in the NICU. You didn't care when the nurses were calling your phone twenty times while you were lying on a beach in Mexico. You only care now because the money stopped."
"Sarah, I didn't know!" William wept.
"You didn't want to know," Sarah corrected. "Security, please remove these people from the pediatric floor. They are disturbing the patients."
Two large security officers stepped in, grabbing William by his arms and pulling him to his feet.
"Sarah! No! Please!" William yelled as he was dragged down the hallway, his boots scraping against the polished linoleum.
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Chloe scrambled after them, cursing William at the top of her lungs as her heels clicked rapidly away.
Sarah turned around, stepped back into her son's hospital room, and gently closed the door, locking out the noise of her past forever.
