Chapter 8 - The Scramble
Downstairs in the hospital lobby, the reality of the situation was crashing down on Grant Holloway with the weight of a collapsing skyscraper.
The two military police officers had released him near the glass sliding doors, standing like stone statues to ensure he didn't re-enter. Jessica was pacing furiously back and forth, her designer heels clicking frantically against the tile floor.
"Grant, what the hell was that?!" Jessica hissed, her face flushed with humiliation. "That general called her Colonel! How do you not know your own wife is a colonel in the United States Army?!"
"I... I thought she was just an admin officer!" Grant stammered, pulling at his collar, his face slick with sweat. "She always wore civilian clothes on the weekends, she never talked about work, she just... she managed paperwork at Fort Belvoir!"
"Paperwork?!" Jessica shrieked, drawing the attention of several nurses at the front desk. "That woman commands strategic units! And look at this!" She shoved her phone into his face. "My firm's internal messaging board is blowing up! The senior partners are saying our accounts have been frozen by federal investigators! They're looking into our department's acquisitions!"
Grant grabbed his phone with trembling fingers, dialing his boss's number. It went straight to voicemail. He tried his office direct line. A disconnected tone buzzed in his ear.
The ground beneath him had completely vanished. The high-rise apartment, the luxury car, the upcoming promotion, the thirty-million-dollar portfolio—it was all gone. And worse, he had just legally divorced the heir to a twenty-million-dollar estate.
"We need to go back up there," Grant muttered, panic setting into his chest like a lead weight. "I need to talk to Tessa. She's reasonable. We were married for five years—"
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"Are you insane?!" Jessica snapped, tearing her engagement ring off her finger and throwing it at his chest. "We are done, Grant! Find another idiot to ruin!"
She turned on her heel and stormed out into the rain, leaving Grant standing alone in the middle of the lobby, completely ruined.
