Chapter 9 - Karma's Harvest
Two weeks after we returned from Florida, I received a certified letter in the mail. It was a formal legal notice from Arthur’s attorney, threatening a lawsuit for "breach of verbal contract" regarding the tennis tuition and property support.
I took the letter straight to my corporate legal counsel. My lawyer practically laughed out loud as he drafted a stern response, attaching the security footage of the cake incident, five years of tax records showing voluntary gifts, and a counter-notice warning them that any further harassment would result in a civil suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress on a minor.
The lawsuit was dropped within forty-eight hours.
A few days later, I bumped into Lisa at a local grocery store. She looked lighter, though weary. She told me she had officially signed the divorce papers and moved into her own apartment with Chloe.
"She's changing, David," Lisa said, her eyes brimming with sincere regret. "Without Michael and Arthur telling her she's better than everyone else, she's starting to understand what she did. She misses Ethan. She asks about him all the time, but I told her she has a long way to go before she ever deserves his forgiveness."
"I appreciate you saying that, Lisa," I replied gently. "I don't hate Chloe. I just hope she learns that actions have consequences."
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"She's learning," Lisa said softly. "The hard way."
As for Michael and Arthur, their toxic echo chamber was all they had left. Michael was passed over for a promotion at work due to his personal legal troubles, and Arthur was left living in a small, rented one-bedroom apartment, stripped of the comfortable lifestyle my money had provided him for over a decade.
