HE MOVED HIS WAITRESS MISTRESS INTO MY MANSION ON DAY ONE OF OUR DIVORCE—HE DIDN’T KNOW I ENGINEERED HIS ENTIRE EMPIRE / Chapter 4 / 24

Chapter 4 - The Thirtieth Day

The morning of the final court hearing was crisp and unseasonably cold.

I arrived at the downtown Charleston courthouse wearing a sharp, tailored ivory suit. I looked nothing like the quiet, accommodating wife who had walked out of Hawthorne Manor thirty days ago. I looked like a CEO. Arthur Sterling and my lead litigator, Sarah Vance, walked beside me, carrying briefcases filled with the finalized equity transfer documents.

Julian was already in the hallway outside the courtroom. He looked completely shattered.

Mia was standing next to him, and they were in the middle of a vicious, hushed argument.

“You promised me a million-dollar shopping budget for Paris!” Mia hissed, her face contorted in an ugly, entitled sneer. “You told me she was getting pennies! Now you’re giving her half your company? You’re pathetic, Julian!”

“Keep your voice down!” Julian pleaded, looking around nervously. “I had to do it to save the firm, Mia! Once this is over, we’ll rebuild. Just be patient!”

“I don't do patient,” Mia snapped, crossing her arms. “If you lose your billionaire status, Julian, I am gone. I’m not spending my twenties nursing a failed businessman.”

Julian stared at her, the absolute, crushing realization of her true nature finally hitting him. The illusion of her unconditional adoration evaporated, leaving behind a shallow, greedy girl who only loved his bank accounts. He had thrown away a twelve-year marriage to a woman who had built him from the ground up, all for a trophy that was threatening to walk away the moment the gold lost its shine.

Julian turned and saw me standing down the hall. The look of profound, agonizing regret in his eyes was almost poetic.

I didn't blink. I walked past him and entered the courtroom.

The proceedings were swift and merciless. The judge reviewed the amended agreement. Julian, looking numb and defeated, signed the documents transferring forty percent of his Class A voting shares in Mercer Holdings directly to my name. The gavel banged. The divorce was finalized.

Outside the courtroom, Julian approached me. He looked like a man standing on the edge of a cliff.

“It’s done, Claire,” Julian said, his voice hollow. “You got your equity. The company is safe. I hope you’re happy.”

“I am incredibly happy, Julian,” I smiled, adjusting my ivory jacket. “But the company isn't safe just yet. There is one final piece of business.”

Julian frowned, confusion wrinkling his forehead. “What do you mean?”

Arthur Sterling stepped forward, handing Julian a formal, embossed envelope.

“What is this?” Julian asked, his hands shaking as he opened it.

“That is a formal notice of an emergency board meeting, scheduled for 2:00 P.M. today at Mercer Holdings headquarters,” Arthur explained smoothly.

“An emergency board meeting? I didn't call a board meeting,” Julian said, his panic rising again.

“You didn't,” I clarified, my voice ringing with lethal authority. “I did. You see, Julian, over the last thirty days, while you were busy fighting with your mistress and trying to hide your liquidity crisis, Arthur has been very busy. He has been quietly purchasing the available minority shares of Mercer Holdings on the open market, using my personal, untouched investment accounts.”

Julian’s face drained of all color. His jaw literally dropped.

“I didn't just want the forty percent equity, Julian,” I whispered, stepping closer so only he could hear the absolute destruction in my voice. “I secured an additional eleven percent from the minority shareholders. Which means, as of this morning, I control fifty-one percent of the voting rights in Mercer Holdings.”

“No,” Julian choked out, staggering backward. “No, that’s impossible. You can't do this.”

“I own the company, Julian,” I said, delivering the fatal blow without a shred of pity. “And the first item on the agenda at the 2:00 P.M. board meeting is a vote of no-confidence in the current Chief Executive Officer. You are being ousted. You are fired from the empire I helped you build.”

Julian fell to his knees in the courthouse hallway. He wept, a pathetic, broken sound that echoed off the marble walls. Mia, watching from a distance, saw him collapse. She didn't run to comfort him. She simply turned on her designer heels, walked out the glass doors, and disappeared into the city, abandoning him exactly as she had promised.

I looked down at the man who had promised me the world, only to try and hand it to someone else.