Chapter 10: The Desperate Strike
The weekend passed in a blissful, uninterrupted silence. By Monday morning, however, the venomous reality of Julian's desperation began to seep under my door.
I was sitting in my corner office at Caldwell Wellness, reviewing architectural blueprints for our fourth spa location, when Victoria Vance walked in. She didn't knock. She simply pushed the glass door open, holding a manila folder with a look of predatory amusement on her face.
"I have to hand it to him," Victoria said, dropping the folder onto my glass desk. "He is cornered, broke, and humiliated, and his first instinct is to try and bite the hand that just threw him out."
I set my pen down. "What did he do?"
"He hired Richard Sterling," Victoria replied, pulling up a white leather chair and crossing her legs. "Sterling is a bottom-feeder. He specializes in muddying the waters, dragging out high-asset divorces, and using tabloid-level smear tactics to force a settlement. He just filed an emergency motion to invalidate the post-nuptial agreement."
I raised an eyebrow. "On what grounds? Julian signed it in front of a notary and two independent witnesses."
"Sterling is claiming coercion and emotional duress," Victoria said, a dry laugh escaping her lips. "He’s arguing that you used your financial dominance to manipulate and isolate him. The narrative they are spinning is that you threatened to let his debt ruin him unless he signed away his rights to the estate. They are painting you as a financial abuser."
I stared at the thick legal document on my desk. The sheer audacity of it was breathtaking.
"He wants half the house," Victoria continued. "He wants spousal support. And he’s demanding fifty percent of the business valuation of the three spas, claiming he contributed 'essential marketing strategy' that led to their success."
"Essential marketing strategy?" I repeated softly. "He handed out flyers ten years ago. Then he let me pay off his eighty-thousand-dollar debt."
"Sterling knows he can't win in a fair fight," Victoria advised, leaning forward, her eyes sharp. "So, he’s going to make it dirty. He requested an emergency deposition for this Friday. He is going to try to rattle you, Harper. He wants to get you on record sounding angry, vindictive, or unstable."
I stood up and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city skyline. Below me, the streets were bustling with people rushing to work, building their lives brick by brick. Julian had never understood that kind of labor. He only knew how to take what others had built and slap his name on it.
"Let them try to make it dirty," I said, my reflection staring back at me in the glass. "I don't play in the mud, Victoria. I just pave over it."
"What's the play?" she asked.
"Give Sterling his deposition this Friday," I instructed, turning back to my lawyer. "Let Julian think he has the upper hand. Let him think his little legal bulldog is going to scare me into a settlement. But in the meantime... I want a full forensic sweep of my corporate servers."
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Victoria paused. "You think he stole more than just cash?"
"Julian is a parasite," I said coldly. "And parasites don't just feed on blood; they lay eggs. If he was planning to declare me mentally unfit and take over my trusts, he wouldn't just stop at the house. Check the client databases. Check the vendor contracts. If he crossed a corporate line, I won't just divorce him. I will bury him."
