Chapter 7 - The Summoning
The legal battle escalated rapidly over the next week. Marcus Sterling filed an emergency motion for asset attachment, presenting our bank records, the mortgage escrow documentation, and the county tax lien discoveries directly to the Wake County Superior Court.
Judge Patricia Holloway—a notoriously no-nonsense magistrate known for her sharp intellect and intolerance for financial fraud—reviewed the emergency petition within forty-eight hours. She didn't just uphold the freeze on Matthew and Diane's accounts; she issued a temporary restraining order preventing Diane from selling or transferring any assets, including her rental property.
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, Matthew appeared outside my apartment building.
I was looking out the living room window when I saw him standing under a golf umbrella near the parking lot, looking thoroughly defeated. His designer suit was wrinkled, his hair was unkempt, and he looked ten years older than the man I had married four years ago.
I didn't want to see him, but I knew avoidance would only prolong the inevitable. I grabbed my jacket, walked down the stairs, and stepped out under the building's covered overhang.
Matthew rushed forward, but stopped a few feet away when he saw the cold, impenetrable expression on my face.
"Olivia... please," he pleaded, his voice cracking. "Mom is losing her mind. The bank locked her accounts too. Her credit cards are maxed out, and she's facing foreclosure on the rental property because the court put a lien on it."
"Good," I said flatly. "Karma has a funny way of balancing the books, Matthew."
"How can you be so cold?" he cried, throwing his hands up in despair. "We were married! Four years! Did any of it mean anything to you?"
"It meant everything to me, Matthew—until I realized you viewed me not as a wife, but as a financial resource to fund your mother's entitlement," I replied, my voice steady and unyielding. "You chose her every single time. You chose her when she insulted me, you chose her when she assaulted me, and you chose her when you stole our savings behind my back."
"I was trapped!" he yelled, the desperation finally boiling over into anger. "You don't understand what it's like growing up with her! She demands perfection! She guilt-trips you until you give in just to make the screaming stop!"
"That's called being an enabler, Matthew. And instead of breaking the cycle of abuse, you weaponized it against me," I said, stepping closer to him. "You worked for a domestic abuse nonprofit while emotionally and financially abusing your own wife. The irony would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic."
Matthew stared at me, the fight completely draining out of him. He slumped his shoulders, tears finally spilling over his eyelids. "What are we going to do, Olivia? My career is gone. My reputation is destroyed. My family is falling apart."
May you like
"You're going to sign the divorce papers, Matthew," I said quietly. "And you're going to testify truthfully about how Diane orchestrated the theft of our savings. If you cooperate fully with my attorney, I might not push for criminal fraud charges against you personally. But Diane? Diane is on her own."
***
