Chapter 5: The Corporate Shark
Chapter 5: The Corporate Shark
While Maya finally fell asleep in her hospital bed, the steady, reassuring beep of her heart monitor echoing in the quiet, dim room, I walked over to the window. Staring out at the Chicago skyline, I dialed my phone.
It was 2:00 AM.
"This better be a hostile corporate takeover or a fire in the server room, Richard," a gruff, sleep-heavy voice answered on the third ring. It was Vance, my lead corporate attorney. He was ruthless, brilliant, and absolutely terrifying in a courtroom.
"It’s a war, Vance," I said coldly.
I quickly explained everything. The cold noodles in the cracked container. The hiding in the dark pantry. The hospital diagnosis. The psychological abuse. By the time I finished, the sleepiness had completely vanished from Vance's voice, replaced by a cold, calculating, and deeply personal anger. He had known Sarah. He had watched Maya grow up since she was in a crib.
"What are your orders?" Vance asked. There was no hesitation, no legal hedging. Just a soldier awaiting his command.
"I want Eleanor locked out of my life," I commanded. "Cancel every credit card attached to my name. Freeze the joint checking and savings accounts. Contact the private security firm and have the electronic locks on the estate changed remotely, right now."
"Consider it done," Vance said, typing rapidly on a keyboard in the background. "What about the prenuptial agreement?"
May you like
"Trigger the morality and abuse clause. I want her walking away with absolutely nothing. And Vance? Pull the cloud data from the estate's interior security cameras. The ones in the kitchen and hallways. She thinks I deactivated them last year because she complained about privacy."
"I'm on it, Richard. I'll have a team analyzing the footage by dawn. She won't know what hit her."
