Chapter 6 - The Legal Battle Begins
Over the next two weeks, the full scale of my legal counteroffensive unfolded with surgical precision.
I retained the premier family law firm in the state alongside my corporate legal team. We filed for an emergency divorce on the grounds of marital misconduct, severe emotional distress, and financial fraud. Because Evan had misused marital assets to fund his affair and attempt corporate theft, the prenuptial agreements and state asset-division laws worked entirely in my favor.
While Evan sat in a cramped, dilapidated two-bedroom apartment that Diane had managed to rent using her dwindling personal savings, he received a stack of court summonses thick enough to serve as a doorstop.
He was facing civil litigation for corporate embezzlement, a high-stakes divorce suit, and a formal investigation by law enforcement into non-consensual property conversion.
One afternoon, my phone rang. It was an unrecognized number. I answered, keeping my tone perfectly professional.
"Claire... please," Evan’s broken voice came through the speaker. He sounded exhausted, defeated, and completely shattered. "Please don't do this. My mother is losing her mind. Marissa is threatening to leave me because I can't afford the lifestyle I promised her. I have nothing left."
"You had a family, Evan," I replied calmly, looking out over my peaceful office balcony. "You had a wife who loved you unconditionally, who cooked your meals, who supported your career, and who stayed silent while your mother humiliated her for over a decade. You traded all of that for greed and vanity."
"I was stupid! I was arrogant!" he pleaded, weeping into the phone. "Just let me see Sophie and Noah. Let me come home!"
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"You had no problem leaving your children homeless when you handed my house keys to your mistress," I said, my voice hardening like tempered steel. "You will see the children only through court-ordered, supervised visitation centers once a full psychological evaluation is complete. Goodbye, Evan."
I hung up the phone and blocked the number permanently.
