Chapter 5 - The Diagnosis
"Do you?" I asked softly.
Mark turned his head slowly, like a rusted machine, to look at Jessica.
Jessica was trembling violently. The gold dress suddenly looked cheap, clinging to a woman whose lies had just caught up to her under the brightest chandeliers in the city.
"Jessica?" Mark choked out, his voice cracking. "Jessica, what is she talking about? Tell her she's crazy."
Jessica burst into tears. She didn't deny it. She couldn't. The medical evidence was right there in his hand. She clutched the baby to her chest and took a step away from him.
"I'm sorry!" Jessica sobbed, the sound echoing through the horrified crowd. "I wanted the lifestyle, Mark! You were going to leave me if I didn't give you a baby, and my personal trainer... it was just a mistake, but then I got pregnant and you were so happy!"
Mark staggered backward as if he had been shot in the chest.
He looked at the little boy with blonde curls. Not his son. The product of his mistress's infidelity, paid for with the money he had stolen from his marriage to me.
"You..." Mark gasped, struggling to pull air into his lungs. He dropped the paper on the marble floor.
May you like
"Oh, and Mark?" I added, my voice devoid of any pity. "Because you hid marital assets to pay off Dr. Aris, our divorce settlement is legally void. My lawyer froze your bank accounts at 4:00 PM today. You are bankrupt. You are sterile. And you are entirely alone."
I didn't wait for his response. I didn't need to hear him scream, or watch him collapse into the ruin of his own making. I turned my back on the man who had called me useless, took a sip of my sparkling water, and walked back into the crowd of my peers, leaving the shattered pieces of Mark Reynolds on the ballroom floor.
