Chapter 5 - The Ultimatum“ENOUGH!”
My voice echoed through the room with such cold, absolute authority that every single person froze instantly. The yelling stopped. The crying muted into ragged sniffles.
I looked around the room, meeting each of their eyes in turn.
“Here is how this is going to work,” I said, my voice measured and lethal. “David, you have forty-eight hours to pack whatever fits into your carry-on bag and clear out of my life permanently. If you contest the divorce, I will submit the financial forensics report of your embezzlement and corporate fraud directly to the district attorney before the week is out.”
David swallowed hard, his throat bobbing up and down. He looked like a cornered animal, all of his bravado completely stripped away. “Eleanor... please. We can talk about this. Let’s go to counseling. We can fix—”
“There is nothing to fix,” I interrupted coldly. “And as for you two,” I turned my gaze toward Teresa and Arthur, who shrank back against the sofa. “Your son’s four-year Tokyo assignment is officially canceled. You have until sunset to call a cab back to your retirement community, because the locks on this house are being changed at midnight.”
Teresa’s lower lip quivered. The haughty, arrogant matriarch was completely gone, replaced by a terrified old woman realizing she had backed the wrong horse. “Eleanor, please... we have nowhere else to go. David told us we could live here permanently—”
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“Take it up with your son,” I said, turning my back on them. “You wanted a proper daughter-in-law to take care of you? Well, you found out what happens when you cross her.”
I walked up the grand staircase, leaving them stranded in the wreckage of their own deceit, and locked my bedroom door behind me for the first night of my new life.
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