Chapter 3 - The Crimson Ledger
The hospital room was sterile, white, and blissfully quiet. Six stitches held the left side of my hairline together. The throbbing had subsided into a dull ache, but my focus was razor-sharp.
By 2:00 AM, the door clicked open. It wasn't the nurse. It was my older brother, Leo, a high-ranking corporate litigation attorney in downtown Denver. His face was a mask of thunderous rage, his tailored suit wrinkled from the frantic drive.
"Tell me he's in a cell," Leo demanded, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of my bed.
"He is," I said, offering a weak but reassuring smile. "Felony domestic assault. Natalie is giving a full statement to the police right now. She’s refusing to let them sweep it under the rug."
Leo let out a breath, running a hand through his hair. "Good. Because if the state didn't lock him up, I would have done something that would put me in a cell next to him. Valerie, how did it get this far? Why did they think they could just demand your property?"
I leaned back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling. "Because Diego is drowning, Leo. His family looks wealthy, but it’s all a house of cards. His father’s investment firm took a massive hit last year. Diego tried to bail them out by taking out high-interest loans under our joint household name, but he couldn't cover the debt. He needed my Capitol Hill condo because it's completely paid off. He was going to use it as collateral for a new loan to hide his embezzlements."
Leo’s eyes narrowed. "And the twenty-four hundred dollars a month?"
"A monthly kickback to his mother to keep her mouth shut about the fact that he’s been forging my signature on commercial building permits to approve substandard materials on his family’s construction projects."
Leo stood frozen. "That’s not just a divorce, Val. That’s a federal prison sentence for corporate fraud and engineering malpractice."
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I reached for my handbag, pulling out the encrypted flash drive I had guarded all night. I placed it in Leo's palm.
"I was going to confront him quietly this weekend and demand a clean, uncontested divorce," I whispered, the memory of the shattering plate flashing behind my eyelids. "But he wanted to play dirty. He wanted to use blood. So now, we give them a war."
