Chapter 4 - The House of Cards Collapses
It took exactly one week for Arthur’s world to implode completely.
While I was being discharged from the hospital into a beautiful, secure, long-term luxury hotel suite (paid for by my separate savings), Arthur was facing a mutiny.
His lead contractors quit when their paychecks bounced. His top clients, hearing whispers of police raids and embezzlement, began pulling their contracts. The architectural firm he had spent twenty years building was bleeding out on the corporate floor.
He tried to call me fifty times a day. Sarah had confiscated my phone and blocked his number, routing all communication through her law office.
Finally, Arthur cornered Sarah in the parking lot of the courthouse after Chloe’s bail hearing.
“Sarah, please,” Arthur begged. He looked like he had aged a decade in seven days. He was unshaven, his eyes bloodshot, his suit wrinkled. “I need to speak to Eleanor. I need to apologize. I’ve lost my business. Chloe is in jail. I have nothing.”
Sarah stopped walking and turned to face him, adjusting her designer sunglasses.
“You have exactly what you asked for, Arthur,” Sarah said sharply. “You chose your lying, manipulative daughter over the woman who saved your life. You locked your wife outside in a blizzard to die. Do you know what the doctors told me? If that snowplow driver had been five minutes later, Eleanor’s heart would have stopped permanently.”
“I was manipulated!” Arthur cried, his voice echoing across the concrete. “Chloe lied to me! I thought Eleanor was destroying my life!”
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“No, Arthur. You destroyed your own life the second you stopped trusting your wife. You will not contact her again. The divorce papers will be served to you by the end of the week. Do not try to fight them, or I will personally ensure the DA charges you with criminal negligence.”
She left him standing alone in the cold.
