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.

“Mr. Thorne, you misappropriated corporate funds to facilitate an affair. You signed legal contracts regarding both your employment and your medical decisions. That is not coercion—it is negligence and greed. The court finds your testimony about ‘bad faith’ ironic, considering you spent the last year lying to your wife while spending your family’s money.”

The gavel fell like a guillotine.

The ruling was absolute. Because of the “dissipation of marital assets”—the money Julian spent on Sienna—the judge awarded Elena 85% of the remaining liquid assets. The house in the Hamptons was granted to Elena as the primary residence for the child. Because Julian had been fired for cause, he received no severance. However, the court imputed income based on his earning potential and ordered him to pay $6,000 a month in child and spousal support, an amount he currently could not afford.

Sienna had long since disappeared. The moment news of his dismissal hit the business papers, she blocked his number and requested a transfer to a London branch, claiming she had been a victim of his power dynamics in order to save her own career.

Seven months later, snow covered the streets of Manhattan. Julian now worked as a junior sales associate for a mid-level logistics company, earning a fraction of his former salary. He lived in a studio apartment in Queens that smelled of damp plaster. His wages were automatically garnished to pay Elena.

Then he received a text notification:

The baby has been born.

Driven by a masochistic need for closure, Julian took the subway to the private wing of Lenox Hill Hospital. He wasn’t on the visitor list, but he managed to persuade a sympathetic nurse. He walked down the immaculate hallway, clutching a cheap teddy bear he had bought at the gift shop.

He found the room. The door was slightly open.

Inside, the suite looked more like a five-star hotel than a hospital room. Flowers covered every surface. Elena sat in the bed, glowing, holding a tiny bundle wrapped in pink cashmere. Magnus Sterling stood by the window, smiling at his granddaughter.

For a moment, Julian simply watched them.