Chapter 5 - The Fall on Michigan AvenueThe security guards dragged Mark out of the 40th-floor boardroom before he could scream another word.
They didn't use the private executive elevator. They threw him into the freight service lift, dropping him forty floors straight down into the loading dock of the Michigan Avenue building.
The heavy metal doors slid open with a metallic clang, spitting him out onto the wet, slippery concrete of the alleyway.
Bang.
The doors closed behind him, sealing him out of the empire he had tried to conquer.
Freezing rain immediately soaked through his charcoal suit, plastering his damp hair against his forehead. He stumbled forward, catching himself against a brick wall, his chest heaving as if he had just run a marathon.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
With trembling fingers, he pulled it out. It was a text message from Jessica Thorne, sent from the 40th floor:
Mark, security just locked my terminal and revoked my badge. What the hell did you do? Arthur Vance is screaming in the hallway. Stay away from me.
Mark stared at the glowing screen, a cold numbness spreading through his limbs.
Jessica. She had used him just as much as he had tried to use her. The moment his ship went down, she cut the life raft.
He dialed her number.
The subscriber you have dialed is not in service, or has blocked your number.
"Damn it!" Mark screamed, throwing his phone against the brick wall. The glass screen shattered into a spiderweb of cracks before clattering into the gutter, disappearing beneath the rushing gray water.
He was ruined. His career was vaporized. The SEC investigation would freeze his bank accounts by the end of the day, and his name was already being blacklisted across every financial institution in Chicago.
He turned to walk back toward Hawthorne Lane, only to realize a brutal, inescapable truth:
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He didn't have a house anymore.
The mortgage was in Elena’s name. The deed was in Elena’s name. The very roof over his head belonged to the woman he had discarded less than twenty-four hours ago.
