A sliver of stock in an energy firm whose CEO owed him a favor. A tech startup barely making headlines now, but destined to explode in two years. Meanwhile, whispers about Claire began to drift into coffee shops and business lunches.
She’s running Hayes Innovations now. Poor girls and over her head. She doesn’t know a ledger from a lunch menu.
Give it time. The sharks will smell blood. Even Jasmine overheard it.
One afternoon at the corner store, two women near the frozen section spoke in hushed tones. That Claire took everything from her husband. Yeah, and now she’s about to lose it all herself.
Karma’s a patient lady. Jasmine looked at her father when they left, a shy grin tugging at her mouth. He just raised an eyebrow.
People talk, he said. We let them. At the mansion, changes began.
Not to the exterior, not yet. But inside, Marcus repaired the old study, replacing warped wood and sealing the windows. He turned a dusty drawing room into a sleek office with a long mahogany desk and two leather chairs.
The vault became an extension of that office. A treasury feeding a vision only he could see. Every night, he’d stand by the cracked second story window, watching headlights crawl along the distant road, feeling the slow, delicious weight of preparation.
By the third month, the vault was lighter by maybe two percent, but the investments it had fueled were already growing roots. Calls from overseas partners came in at odd hours. Accounts in his name began to fill, not from anything Claire could seize, but from ventures she couldn’t even comprehend.
And then, one morning, as Marcus reviewed a set of contracts and a renovated study, the phone buzzed with a message from Arturo. She’s in trouble. Your ex real trouble.
Marcus leaned back, finger steepled, the leather chair sighing beneath him. It wasn’t time to smile yet, but it was close. By month four, Claire’s glossy social media posts began to slow.
No more champagne glasses clinking against city skylines. No more red carpet smiles with industry elites. Instead, there were grainy photos taken in dim restaurants, captions that tried too hard, and a noticeable absence of certain friends who had once hovered at her side.
The gossip in the business district turned sharper. Hayes Innovations missed another quarterly filing. Vendors aren’t getting paid.
She’s mortgaging properties, now a desperate move. Marcus heard it all without asking. People love telling you bad news about someone who wronged you…
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