Chapter 4 - The Sound of Shattered Glass
By noon, my phone hadn't stopped vibrating.
Calls from unknown numbers, text messages from mutual acquaintances asking what on earth was happening, and frantic missed calls from Felix’s corporate office number flashed across my screen in an unbroken stream. I ignored every single one of them.
I had an appointment downtown at Marcus Vance’s office, and I wasn't going to let a panicking junior executive and his overbearing mother ruin my schedule.
Marcus’s office occupied the entire thirty-second floor of a sleek glass-and-steel monolith overlooking the financial district. The walls were lined with leather-bound law reporters, and the view offered a panoramic sweep of the city skyline.
When I walked into his corner office, Marcus rose from his leather executive chair, a wide, appreciative grin spreading across his face.
"Mrs. Sterling," he said, extending a hand. "I just got off the phone with opposing counsel. Or rather, I just listened to Felix’s attorney try to hyperventilate through a headset while demanding an emergency stay."
I took a seat across from his desk, resting my leather folder on the polished wood. "Let me guess. They realized the deed wasn't community property?"
"Not just the deed," Marcus chuckled, sitting back down and lacing his fingers together. "When my office served them with the financial audit alongside the countersuit, your husband discovered a few other interesting details. For instance, the fact that you hold exclusive copyright and revenue streams for three major digital design frameworks currently licensed by half the tech firms in this zip code."
"He never bothered to ask what my clients paid," I noted quietly. "He assumed because I worked from home in yoga pants, I was just playing on Canva."
"Well, his ignorance is going to cost him dearly," Marcus said, opening a thick binder. "Furthermore, we’ve attached formal motions for asset dissipation regarding the items he and his mother removed from the house yesterday. Under state law, even if an item was purchased with individual funds during a marriage, stripping a primary residence of essential fixtures and furnishing without a signed separation agreement constitutes willful property disruption and bad-faith asset manipulation."
I raised an eyebrow. "So the television, the couch, and the kitchen appliances?"
"Are currently being classified by the court as contested marital assets illegally removed from the domicile," Marcus smiled sharply. "Which means Felix can’t sell them, return them, or claim them as solely his until the judge reviews our emergency injunction. In fact, we’ve requested a court order mandating that he return every single item to this address within forty-eight hours, at his own expense."
I had to suppress a laugh. I could already picture Lucia’s face when she found out that the very furniture they had so gleefully hauled out of my house had to be carted right back under court order, under penalty of contempt.
"What about Felix’s corporate accounts?" I asked.
"Frozen as of 11:15 AM," Marcus replied smoothly. "We petitioned for a temporary restraining order on his discretionary bonuses and stock options pending forensic accounting. Given that he transferred twenty thousand dollars into an account bearing his mother’s name three days before walking out, the judge didn't hesitate to grant it. Your husband is currently sitting in his office with frozen credit cards, a blocked corporate bonus, and a judge demanding an explanation for why he tried to hide marital assets."
I leaned back in my chair, feeling a deep, profound sense of release wash over me.
Eight years. Eight years of walking on eggshells, biting my tongue, listening to Lucia’s snide remarks about my worth, and watching Felix slowly turn into a stranger who looked down on me with cold contempt.
They thought I was fragile. They thought my silence was weakness. They mistook my patience for submission.
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"What happens next, Marcus?" I asked.
"Next," Marcus said, sliding a document across the desk for my review, "we wait for them to realize that unconditional surrender is their only remaining option. Felix can fight this for a year, burn through his legal retainers, and end up bankrupt, or he can sign our settlement terms by Friday afternoon."
