Chapter 4
Adrian woke up on Monday morning feeling like a king.
He was in his bed—our bed—with Celeste curled up beside him. The house was quiet. The sun was streaming through the windows. He had a meeting at nine that would finalize the biggest deal of his career.
Life was good.
He rolled over and checked his phone.
Thirty-seven missed calls.
Ninety-two text messages.
Two hundred and fourteen new emails.
He frowned. That was unusual. Even on his busiest days, he never got that many messages overnight.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and started opening them.
The first was from his bank.
URGENT: Your accounts have been frozen pending legal review. Please contact...
The second was from his CFO.
Adrian, call me NOW. All the operating accounts are frozen. We can't make payroll. We can't pay vendors. The entire company is grinding to a halt.
The third was from his lawyer.
Adrian—we have a problem. A big one. You've been served. The plaintiff is Evelyn Hale-Vale. Her counsel is Marcus Chen. Call me immediately.
Adrian's blood turned to ice.
Marcus Chen.
He knew that name. Everyone in the business world knew that name. The man was a shark. He didn't just win cases—he destroyed people.
But that was impossible. Evelyn didn't know Marcus Chen. Evelyn didn't know anyone important. Evelyn was just... Evelyn. His ex-wife. The mother of his children. The woman who had nothing.
He threw back the covers and ran to his home office. He logged into his bank account.
FROZEN.
Every single account. Personal. Business. Even the rainy-day fund he'd hidden in a separate bank under a different name.
Frozen.
He called his lawyer. The man picked up on the first ring.
"Adrian. Thank God. Where have you been?"
"What the hell is going on?" Adrian shouted. "Why are my accounts frozen? Why is Marcus Chen representing my wife? She can't afford him! She doesn't have two pennies to rub together!"
There was a pause on the other end.
"Adrian... do you know who Evelyn's family is?"
Adrian blinked. "Her family? They're... nice. Middle class. Her dad runs some small manufacturing company upstate. Why?"
Another pause. Longer this time.
"Adrian. Her father is William Hale. Of Hale Global."
The words didn't make sense at first.
Hale Global. The conglomerate. The multi-billion-dollar empire that owned half the city. The company that Adrian had been trying to get a meeting with for years. The company that could make or break Vale Enterprises with a single phone call.
"That's impossible," Adrian whispered. "Her name was Hale, but—"
"William Hale's only daughter is named Evelyn," his lawyer said, his voice grim. "She changed her name when she married you. She kept a very low profile. No one in the city knew who she really was. Evidently, she wanted to make it on her own. Without the family money."
Adrian sat down hard. His legs wouldn't hold him anymore.
"Oh my God," he breathed.
"Oh my God is right," his lawyer said. "And Adrian? They're not just coming for the divorce. They've filed a civil suit against Vale Enterprises for fraud, embezzlement, and breach of fiduciary duty. And the IRS—they're auditing you. Every return for the last seven years."
Adrian couldn't breathe. The room was closing in.
"Can we fight it?" he managed.
"Against Marcus Chen? Against Hale Global's resources?" His lawyer actually laughed. It was a bitter, defeated sound. "Adrian, I'm sorry. But I'm going to have to withdraw as your counsel. There's a conflict of interest. Hale Global is... was... one of our biggest clients. They gave us a choice. Drop you, or lose them."
The line went dead.
Adrian stared at the phone in his hand.
This wasn't happening. This was a nightmare. Any second now, he would wake up. Evelyn would be beside him, pregnant and snoring softly, and none of this would be real.
"Adrian?"
Celeste stood in the doorway, wrapped in his silk robe. She looked beautiful. She always looked beautiful.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
He looked at her. Really looked at her. For the first time in three years, he didn't see the future. He saw the mistake. The four hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars in consulting fees. The house. The Birkin bags. The expensive dinners. The vacations.
All of it. All paid for with money that was about to come back and destroy him.
"Get out," he said.
She blinked. "What?"
"I said get out!" He stood up, suddenly furious. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't pushed me to do the papers in the hospital—if you hadn't been so obvious—none of this would be happening!"
Celeste's face hardened. She crossed her arms.
"Don't you dare blame me," she said coldly. "You were the one who wanted to leave her. You were the one who said she was weak and wouldn't fight back. You were the one who bragged about how easy it would be."
She stepped into the room.
"And for the record? I'm not going anywhere. This house is in my name. You gave it to me. Remember?"
Adrian's phone rang again. He looked at the caller ID. The CEO of the company he was supposed to merge with. The deal that was supposed to make him a hundred million dollars.
He answered.
"Adrian Vale speaking."
"Vale. It's over. We're pulling out of the merger. Effective immediately."
"What? Why? We had a deal!"
"We did our due diligence," the man said. "Or rather, Hale Global did it for us. We know about the embezzlement. We know about the fraud. We know about the IRS audit. If we so much as shake your hand, our stock drops twenty points. Don't ever call me again."
The line went dead.
Adrian dropped the phone. It clattered on the hardwood floor.
Celeste was watching him. The smugness was gone from her face. In its place was something Adrian knew very well.
Calculation.
She was doing the math. She was figuring out how much money he had left. How much status. How much power.
And she was coming up short.
"The Birkin," she said suddenly. "The black one. You bought it for me. Legally, it's mine."
Adrian stared at her.
"You're worried about the bag right now?"
"I'm worried about everything that's mine," she said. "And if you're going down, Adrian Vale, I am not going down with you."
She turned and walked back to the bedroom. Adrian heard her opening drawers, pulling out her clothes, throwing them into suitcases.
He didn't move. He couldn't.
He just sat there in his expensive leather chair, in his expensive house, in his expensive suit, and watched his entire life crumble around him.
Forty-eight hours.
That's all it had taken.
Forty-eight hours from the moment he had walked into that hospital room, smirking and victorious.
May you like
And now?
Now he had nothing.
