Are you enjoying wine with your lover, darling? I hope so, because I’ve just frozen your credit cards and that bottle will be the last thing you buy with my father’s money.

She had waited.

“Why wait almost a year?” Julian asked, his voice shaking with anger.

“The Sterling Trust,” Marcus said, pointing to a financial calendar. “Your father-in-law, Magnus Sterling, established a trust for Elena that vests every five years. The latest vesting period was yesterday. By waiting until the funds were transferred into the joint account and immediately filing for divorce with a freeze order, she effectively trapped the capital. If she had divorced you a month ago, that money wouldn’t have been part of the marital asset discussion. Now she can use it to bury you in legal fees while you can’t access a single cent.”

But the financial trap was nothing compared to the professional one.

Later that afternoon, Julian tried to enter Sterling Media. Security stopped him at the turnstile. He was escorted into a small conference room where the Head of Human Resources and Magnus Sterling himself were waiting.

Magnus didn’t look angry.

He looked disappointed, which was far worse.

He slid a document across the table.

“Three months ago, Julian, you signed an updated executive compensation package,” Magnus said quietly. “You were so focused on the bonus structure that you didn’t read the addendum about the Morality Clause. Any executive found using company funds for extramarital affairs or engaging in behavior that damages the firm’s reputation forfeits all severance, all unvested stock options, and is subject to immediate termination for cause.”

Julian felt the room spinning.

He remembered signing it. He had been in a hurry to meet Sienna for lunch. Elena had handed him the pen herself, smiling sweetly, telling him it was just “standard paperwork.”