Chapter 3 - The Fortress
By day three in the hospital, I was moved out of the ICU and into a private recovery suite.
My younger sister, Sarah, had flown in from Chicago the moment she got the call. Sarah was a corporate litigator who ate men like Arthur for breakfast. She had immediately stationed herself as the guard dog at my hospital door.
“He tried to send flowers,” Sarah scoffed, tossing a massive bouquet of orchids directly into the trash can. “I told the nurses if Arthur Vance steps off the elevator, they are to call security and have him arrested for violating the emergency restraining order I filed yesterday.”
“Thank you, Sarah,” I sighed, adjusting my pillows. My chest still ached, but the fog in my mind had cleared.
“I also froze the joint accounts,” Sarah continued, pulling out a thick binder. “And I filed for an emergency separation of assets. I spoke to your personal accountant. Turns out, Eleanor, you were the only thing keeping Arthur’s architectural firm afloat.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Arthur is a great architect, but he’s a terrible businessman,” Sarah explained, flipping to a spreadsheet. “You were the one managing the books, catching the tax breaks, balancing the ledgers. The moment Chloe took over the ‘investigation’ and locked you out of the accounts, she went on a spending spree.”
Chloe hadn't just stolen the four hundred thousand. She had taken out massive lines of credit under Arthur’s company name. She had funded a secret gambling habit, bought designer clothes, and paid off debts from her previous eviction.
“Arthur is completely broke,” Sarah said, a grim smile playing on her lips. “The firm is overleveraged. Chloe drained the operating accounts to zero. Tomorrow is payday for his employees, and the checks are going to bounce.”
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A heavy silence filled the room. For a brief second, the wife in me—the woman who had spent fifteen years building a life with that man—felt a pang of sorrow for him. But then I remembered the deadbolt clicking shut behind me in the blizzard.
“Let it bounce,” I said.
