Chapter 4 - The Escalation
"Jacqueline, wait!" Alistair panicked, ripping the oxygen mask off his face and attempting to sit up, but the IV lines tugged sharply against his arm. "Listen to me! It's not what you think!"
"Don't bother, Alistair," I said, stepping back from the bed and smoothing down my blazer. "You're a financial advisor. You know how calculations work. And your numbers just ran out."
Martha scrambled out of her chair, her face contorted in a mixture of rage and desperation. "You ungrateful, spiteful woman! After everything my son has done for you! You’re going to kick him while he’s in a hospital bed?!"
I turned my gaze onto my mother-in-law, my eyes locking onto hers with such intensity that she shrank back a step.
"Everything he's done for me, Martha?" I asked coldly. "You mean using my inheritance to fund your monthly $4,000 allowance? Or using my home equity to buy a luxury townhouse for his mistress while you played doting grandmother behind my back?"
Martha's mouth opened and closed like a landed fish. She turned to her husband for support, but George simply sat in his chair, staring at his hands, completely ashamed.
"You knew, didn't you, George?" I asked softly, looking at my father-in-law.
George let out a heavy, defeated sigh. "I told him it was wrong, Jacqueline. I told him he was going to destroy everything. But he wouldn't listen to me. He said he had it all planned out."
"George, shut up!" Martha snapped bitterly.
"No, Martha!" George suddenly shouted back, his voice booming across the room for the first time in thirty years. "It's over! Look at him! Look at what he did! She's a senior partner at the biggest divorce firm in the state! Did you two honestly think she wouldn't find out?!"
Alistair lay back on his pillows, his chest heaving, sweat pouring down his forehead as he stared at me, his master plan crumbling around his ears in real-time.
"Jacqueline... please," Alistair choked out, shifting from arrogance to pathetic pleading. "Think about Matty... he's just a little boy. He needs a future..."
"Matty is an innocent child, Alistair," I said, my voice hardening. "And it's a tragedy that he has a fraudster for a father. But you don't get to steal my life, my money, and my reputation to finance your second family. You chose this path. Now you get to walk it."
I picked up my leather bag, turned on my heel, and walked out of Room 412, ignoring Martha’s shrill screams echoing down the hospital corridor behind me.
When I reached my car in the parking garage, my phone rang. It was Gavin.
"Jacqueline, we have a situation," Gavin said urgently. "Paige Miller just entered the Hennepin County Land Records office in person. She’s trying to execute a quitclaim deed to transfer the Edina townhouse out of AURA Holdings and directly into her personal name."
A sharp, dangerous smile spread across my face. She was panicking. Alistair must have texted her from his bed the moment I walked out.
"Did she succeed?" I asked, putting my car into gear.
"Not yet. The clerk is processing the paperwork now."
"Tell me you have the ex-parte asset freezing order ready," I said, stepping on the gas.
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"David Mercer just walked out of the judge's chambers with the signed injunction ten minutes ago," Gavin chuckled. "AURA Holdings is locked down. Every bank account, property title, and liquid asset tied to Alistair Finch or his entities is legally frozen."
"I'm ten minutes away from the Land Records office," I said, merging onto the highway. "I think it's time I formally introduce myself to my husband's other wife."
