Chapter 4 - The Federal Checkmate
Two months later, the divorce and the criminal proceedings converged in a sterile, heavily guarded federal courthouse.
I arrived wearing a sharp, tailored white suit. I did not look like a mobster's terrified wife. I looked like a woman who had successfully burned down a toxic forest so her son could grow up in the sunlight.
Dante was led into the courtroom in handcuffs and a bright orange jumpsuit. The charcoal coats, the signet rings, and the aura of untouchable dread were completely gone. He looked hollowed out, his dark eyes sinking into his skull.
He looked at me across the aisle, his hands trembling in their steel restraints.
“Bella,” he mouthed silently, a pathetic, desperate plea for a mercy I no longer possessed.
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My lawyers were merciless. Because of his criminal indictments and the undeniable danger his lifestyle posed, the family court judge granted me sole legal and physical custody of Leo. Dante’s parental rights were permanently terminated. He would never hold his son. He would never hear his son’s first words. He was completely erased from our lives.
As for the assets, the judge ruled that the legitimate real estate holdings I had meticulously separated from his criminal enterprises over the years legally belonged to me. I walked out of the courtroom with millions of dollars in clean, untouchable capital, while Dante was escorted back to a maximum-security holding cell to await a trial he was guaranteed to lose.
