Chapter 6 - The Mistress's Reality Check
By 3:00 PM, Ethan had posted a meager bail using the last three hundred dollars of emergency cash he had tucked in his wallet to get his mother out of the precinct.
Penniless, stripped of his corporate credentials, and legally banned from coming anywhere near my townhouse, Ethan did the only thing he had left: he retreated to the luxury high-rise apartment he had rented for Madison Reed.
What Ethan didn't realize was that Marcus, our forensic accountant, had already acted on the court order.
Because the lease for Madison’s high-rise had been paid using embezzled funds from my corporate account, Victoria had obtained an emergency lease cancellation and asset freeze on the unit.
I decided to accompany Victoria’s legal team to the apartment building, not to argue, but to officially take possession of my company's stolen assets.
When the elevator opened on the thirty-second floor, the hallway was already echoing with screaming.
Madison Reed stood in the open doorway of the luxury apartment, wearing a silk maternity robe, clutching her swollen belly.
Ethan was standing in the corridor, holding his cardboard box of office supplies, looking completely destroyed.
"What do you mean the rent check bounced?" Madison was yelling at him, tears streaming down her face. "The building manager just came up and told me we have forty-eight hours to vacate the penthouse!"
"Maddy, baby, calm down," Ethan pleaded, trying to reach for her hand. "It’s just a temporary banking error. Claire went crazy and froze the accounts, but my lawyer is going to fix everything by tomorrow—"
"Your lawyer?" Madison shrieked, backing away from him. "Ethan, where is the three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for our Naperville house? The closing agent called me an hour ago and said the funds were canceled! The seller is canceling the contract and keeping our twenty-thousand-dollar earnest deposit!"
"I... I ran into a minor delay with the paperwork," Ethan stammered, sweating through his shirt.
"A minor delay?" Madison screamed. "You told me your wife was a pushover! You told me she was a dumb country girl who signed whatever you put in front of her! You told me she was going to pay for our entire life!"
I stepped out from around the corner of the hallway, flanked by Victoria and a uniformed building superintendent.
"Actually, Madison," I said smoothly, folding my arms. "The dumb country girl decided to close the charity clinic."
Madison gasped, clutching her robe tighter, her eyes darting between me and Ethan.
"Who are you?" she asked in a small, terrified voice.
"I’m Claire. The woman who paid for the roof over your head, the clothes on your back, and the prenatal vitamins in your medicine cabinet."
Madison turned to Ethan, pure horror in her eyes.
"Ethan... what did you do?"
"Claire, please!" Ethan begged, dropping his cardboard box to the carpeted floor. Papers and desk toys scattered everywhere. "Don't do this to an unborn child! Madison has nothing to do with this!"
"Madison knew every single detail," I said, pulling out a printout of the text messages Ethan had left on his laptop. "She specifically texted you asking if the 'stupid wife' had signed the HELOC so she could buy her suburban mansion."
Madison’s face drained of all color.
"I didn't mean that... Ethan told me you two were already separated!" Madison cried out, attempting to play the victim. "He told me you were abusive and that he was just taking what was rightfully his!"
Victoria Vance stepped forward, adjusting her glasses.
"Ms. Reed, ignorance is not a legal defense against receiving stolen corporate property.
Every single luxury item in this apartment purchased with funds from Mrs. Cole's business account is subject to immediate civil repossession.
Furthermore, Ethan's name is being submitted to the Cook County Grand Jury on criminal embezzlement charges tomorrow morning.
He has no job, no credit, no assets, and zero income."
Madison looked at Ethan as if he were a poisonous insect.
"You don't have a job?" she whispered.
"Maddy, I will find another firm! I'm a senior director, I have connections—"
"You're blacklisted across the entire Midwest, Ethan," Victoria interrupted calmly. "Arthur Sterling sent a formal fraud advisory to every major PR firm in Illinois by one o'clock today."
Madison took two steps back into the apartment and slammed the door directly in Ethan's face.
The heavy lock clicked shut.
"Madison! Open the door! Madison, please! It's our baby!" Ethan slammed his fists against the door, weeping openly in the corridor.
"Get away from me, Ethan!" Madison screamed from behind the wood. "I'm calling my parents to come pick me up! Don't you ever come near me or this baby again, you pathetic fraud!"
Ethan sank to his knees in the hallway, surrounded by his scattered office papers, sobbing uncontrollably.
I looked down at the man I had spent four years trying to please, and I felt nothing.
No hatred.
No sorrow.
May you like
Just complete, liberating indifference.
"Have a nice life, Ethan," I said quietly, turning toward the elevator. "Make sure you save some of those tears for the judge."
