Chapter 5 - The Cost of Betrayal
The next three months were a brutal, exhausting war.
Julian tried to fight the divorce and the corporate buyout.
He hired a sleazy lawyer who tried to claim I had orchestrated the entire scandal to steal the company from him.
It was a desperate, laughable defense.
The paper trail of his embezzlement was too strong.
The board was fully united behind me.
And the photo Camila had taken was undeniable proof of his breach of contract.
We met for the final mediation in a sterile conference room in downtown Manhattan.
I sat on one side of the table with my legal team.
Julian sat on the other side.
He looked ten years older.
He had lost weight. His suit didn't fit right anymore.
The stress and the public humiliation had carved deep lines into his face.
I had heard through the grapevine that Camila had left him after only two weeks.
Once she realized there was no hidden offshore money, and that Julian was facing potential jail time for fraud, she packed her designer bags and vanished.
Last I heard, she was working as a receptionist at a mid-level marketing firm.
"This is the final offer, Mr. Sterling," my lawyer said, sliding a thick document across the table.
Julian stared at it.
"You're taking all my equity," he said, his voice hollow.
"The equity is being bought back at the penalized rate outlined in your contract," my lawyer corrected. "The funds will go directly to paying back the money you embezzled. In exchange, the company will drop the criminal charges against you."
It was a generous deal, honestly.
He wouldn't go to prison.
But he would walk away with absolutely nothing.
No money. No company. No reputation.
Julian looked up at me.
His eyes were bloodshot.
"Is this what you want, Vic?" he asked quietly. "To leave me with nothing?"
I looked back at him, meeting his gaze without blinking.
"I didn't leave you with nothing, Julian," I said. "You chose this."
"I made a mistake," he whispered.
"No," I corrected firmly. "A mistake is forgetting to pay a bill. A mistake is missing a flight. What you did was a series of hundreds of deliberate choices."
I leaned forward, clasping my hands on the table.
"You chose to hire her. You chose to flirt with her. You chose to sleep with her. You chose to steal from our company to impress her. And you chose to let her take a photo in a bed you paid for with my money."
I let the silence hang in the air.
"You made your choices, Julian. I'm just making mine."
He stared at me for a long time.
Perhaps he was looking for a trace of the woman who used to love him.
But that woman was gone, burned away by the fire he had started.
Slowly, with trembling hands, Julian picked up the pen.
He signed his name on the dotted line.
He signed away his marriage.
He signed away his company.
He signed away his life's work.
When he finished, he pushed the paper back across the table.
He stood up, looking at me one last time.
"Goodbye, Victoria."
"Goodbye, Julian."
He walked out of the conference room, and the door clicked shut behind him.
My lawyer let out a long sigh of relief.
"It's done," she said. "You're free. And the company is 100% secure."
I looked at the signature on the paper.
I felt a strange tightness in my chest.
A single tear slipped down my cheek, betraying my stoic facade.
I quickly wiped it away.
It was okay to mourn.
I wasn't mourning the man who had just walked out that door.
I was mourning the man I thought I had married seven years ago.
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But the grief was temporary.
The freedom was permanent.
