Chapter 17 - The Digital Dagger
The divorce proceedings were brutal, but strictly by the numbers. Because Eric had been fired for cause, his claims for spousal support were laughed out of the room by the mediator. He was practically penniless, forced to rent a dingy furnished room in Queens.
But the final nail in the coffin came during the legal discovery phase.
Denise, my bulldog of a lawyer, subpoenaed Eric’s text messages to verify his financial transfers to his mother. What she found was a digital dagger straight to the heart of my entire marriage.
I sat in Denise’s office, staring at a printed transcript of a text conversation between Eric and Gloria. It was dated just three weeks after our wedding.
Gloria: You need to stop acting like a guest in that fancy place. It’s yours too now.
Eric: Working on it. I’m slowly getting her to put my name on the utility bills. Next step is the HOA.
Gloria: Good boy. If she ever leaves you, make sure you get your half of that Tribeca goldmine. Don’t let that stuck-up bitch keep everything.
Eric: Relax, Mom. Once we’ve been married long enough, the state considers it shared property. I know what I’m doing.
I read the texts three times. The letters blurred together through my tears.
It hadn’t been an accident. The financial abuse, the entitlement, the gradual takeover of my space—it was a premeditated strategy. He had married me for my assets. His mother had coached him on how to slowly legally commingle my wealth so they could extract it.
The red basin hadn't been a random act of cruelty. It was the final test to see if my spirit was completely broken, if I was finally submissive enough to hand over the keys to my kingdom.
“Can we use this?” I asked Denise, my voice cold and hollow.
May you like
“Oh, honey,” Denise smiled, a predatory gleam in her eye. “We aren’t just going to use it. We are going to bury him with it.”
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