Chapter 6 - Paradise Lost
The tropical breeze in Maui felt less like a gentle embrace and more like the breath of an oven. Alexander and Khloe sat on a concrete bench outside the departures terminal, surrounded by their designer luggage—luggage they could no longer afford to check into a hotel room.
Passersby glanced at them curiously. Khloe had tears streaming down her face, ruining her expensive makeup, her pristine white sundress stained with spilled coffee from a nearby café where they had been rudely rejected.
"This is all your fault!" Khloe snapped, her voice shrill and desperate as she glared at Alexander. "You swore she was stupid! You swore her family’s trust fund was completely under our control!"
"Shut up, Khloe!" Alexander roared, his face purple with rage as he scrubbed his hands through his disheveled hair. "If you hadn't insisted on coming along on the honeymoon, flaunting yourself right in front of her, none of this would have happened! You pushed her too far!"
"Me? I pushed her?" Khloe shrieked, standing up and throwing her hands in the air. "You were the one who wanted to steal her entire fortune and leave her penniless in a psychiatric ward! Don't you dare put this on me!"
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Several tourists stopped to stare at the disheveled couple bickering in public. Alexander’s face burned with humiliation. He pulled out his phone again, desperately trying to log into his personal banking app, only to be met with a cold, unforgiving error screen: Access Denied. Account Under Criminal Investigation.
He realized then the terrifying depth of his mistake. Sophia hadn't just discovered his affair; she had methodically, coldly dismantled his entire existence while he sat in first class sipping champagne. She had used his own arrogance as the very weapon to destroy him.
