Chapter 8 - The Settlement and the Divorce
The formal divorce and corporate liability settlement took place in a private room at the federal courthouse three weeks later. Because of the sheer volume of criminal evidence Sovereign Group had provided to the state, Brendan had agreed to a plea bargain that would reduce his prison sentence from twenty years to four, provided he signed a complete, unconditional waiver of all marital and parental rights.
I sat at the mahogany table, looking radiant in a white linen maternity dress, my pregnancy now clearly visible at seven months. Arthur sat beside me, a thick stack of legal documents ready for my final signature.
Brendan was brought into the room in an orange jumpsuit, his hands chained to a leather belt around his waist. He looked thin, his arrogant smirk replaced by a hollow, haunted look that made him look twenty years older.
"Cassidy," he said, his voice trembling as he sat down across from me. "You look beautiful."
"Sign the papers, Brendan," I said, my voice calm, steady, and completely devoid of malice. I didn't hate him anymore. He was too insignificant to hate.
He looked down at the parental waiver document. "She’ll never know my name, will she?"
"She will know your name, Brendan," I said softly, leaning forward. "She will know that her father was a man who stole from his own company, who let his mother treat her pregnant mother like trash, and who traded his daughter's future for a shorter prison sentence. I want her to know exactly what kind of blood she doesn't have running through her veins."
Brendan let out a ragged, choked sob, his tears dropping onto the legal paper as he took the pen from the guard’s hand. His signature was shaky, broken, and final.
With that single stroke of ink, the Morrison name was permanently erased from my life, my company, and my daughter's future.
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"Take him away," Arthur ordered the guards.
As they dragged him out of the room, Brendan didn't look back. He knew that the woman who had once cooked his dinners and cleaned his clothes was now a sovereign who ruled a world he would never see again.
