Chapter 6 - The Serving of Reality
Daniel stared at the front door as if it were an executioner's axe. The chime sounded a second time.
Claire walked past him into the foyer, pulled the heavy wooden door open, and accepted a thick envelope from a uniformed courier, signing the digital pad with a polite nod.
"Thank you," she said, closing the door and walking back into the living room where Daniel stood paralyzed.
She tossed the packet onto the coffee table right in front of him. He looked down at the bold legal lettering: Emergency Asset Freeze, Notice of Pendency, and Summons for Dissolution of Marriage.
"You're locked out of the corporate discretionary fund, the secondary condo lease is in default due to the financial freeze, and your board of directors has already received notification regarding corporate asset misuse during an ongoing internal compliance review," Claire recited casually, as if reading a grocery list. "By Monday morning, your business partners will know why your credit cards were declined."
"Claire, please," Daniel choked out, his voice cracking as the invincible corporate executive crumbled into a desperate, cornered man. "We can fix this. It was a mistake—a temporary lapse in judgment. Cynthia meant nothing. I swear to you—"
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"Save it for the mediator," Claire interrupted, picking up her car keys from the console. "Emma is staying at her campus dorm tonight to study for finals. I’m going to a hotel. When you wake up tomorrow morning in a house you can no longer afford to maintain on a frozen salary, remember that you built every single brick of this wall yourself."
She walked out the door, leaving him alone in the cavernous, silent house, surrounded by the wreckage of a life he had taken completely for granted.
