Chapter 4 - The Unraveling
The fallout accelerated over the following week. Driven into a corner, Marcus tried to sell off personal assets—his Hampton house, his luxury yacht, and his sports car collection—to pay his astronomical legal retainers and cover the margin calls on his tanking company stock.
However, Ethan’s financial team moved faster. Every time Marcus tried to liquidate an asset, he found it frozen by court orders or bought out by shell companies affiliated with Rhodes Capital, effectively trapping him in a financial vice.
Meanwhile, Celeste Harrington made a surprising move.
I was sitting in my private office at Aegis Health when my assistant informed me that Celeste was waiting in the reception lounge, requesting a private meeting.
I hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Show her in."
Celeste walked into my office. Gone was the arrogant, glowing bride in white silk. She wore a simple dark dress, her face pale and swollen from days of crying. She looked exhausted, her pregnancy weight visibly weighing on her fragile frame.
"Eleanor," she began softly, holding her handbag tightly against her abdomen. "I... I don't know where to start."
"Sit down, Celeste," I said gently, pointing to the leather sofa opposite my desk.
She sat down slowly, taking a deep breath. "I came to apologize. And... to give you this."
She pulled an encrypted flash drive from her purse and placed it on my coffee table.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Two nights before the wedding, Marcus was drunk," Celeste said, her voice trembling. "He was rambling about you. He was angry that you were doing so well after the divorce. He left his private laptop open. I didn't think much of it then, but after what happened at the ballroom... I looked through his archived cloud backups."
She swallowed hard, tears welling in her eyes. "It contains emails between him and his personal attorney from three years ago. Discussions about how to falsify the medical consent forms and how to execute the IP transfer while you were under anesthesia."
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I stared at the drive, a chill running down my spine. "Why are you giving this to me, Celeste?"
"Because he used me," she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. "He didn't love me. He didn't even care about this baby. He just wanted my father's money and a picture-perfect family to parade in front of you. He is a monster... and I refuse to let my child grow up thinking that man is a hero."
