Julian stood up so fast he knocked his luxury watch against the edge of the desk. “You… you’re lying. You don’t have that kind of leverage. You’re an anonymous nobody!”
“I am the anonymous nobody who bought your family’s ancestral home for forty-two million dollars in cash two years ago, Julian,” Hannah said, her voice cutting through the room like an ice pick. “For twenty-four months, you have been paying eighty-five thousand dollars a month in rent directly into my private brokerage account. You called me a parasite while you were literally paying my mortgage.”
She swiped the screen of her tablet again.
“And it gets better. Because you were so eager to hide your affair with Clara, you used the household maintenance credit lines to pay for her luxury apartment in River North, labeling the expenses as ‘roof repairs’ and ‘limestone restoration’ on the family ledger. Since I am the legal landlord of this property and the sole auditor of that account, that constitutes commercial embezzlement and fraudulent conversion of property.”
The massive double doors of the drawing room opened. Arthur Vance—the lead federal compliance attorney for the city’s housing authority—stepped into the room, flanked by two private security officers carrying eviction notices stamped by the State of Illinois.
“Julian Vance-Sterling,” Arthur announced, his voice booming off the high ceilings. “As counsel for H.E.G. Capital, I am serving you with an immediate, non-negotiable notice of lease termination due to material breach of contract, illegal corporate asset diversion, and unauthorized property degradation.”
“Lease termination?” Beatrice shrieked, her aristocratic facade completely fracturing into raw, unadulterated terror. “This is my house! My grandfather built this ballroom! You can’t throw me out into a blizzard!”
“I can, Beatrice,” Hannah said, stepping back and watching the security guards begin to place red security tape over the expensive oil paintings on the walls. “Because according to the terms of the leaseback agreement your husband signed, a material default allows the landlord to seize all interior property, including the art, the silver, and the furniture, to cover the liquidated damages. You have exactly fifteen minutes to take your personal clothes and exit through the service door.”
Julian dropped to his knees, his face turning an unwholesome shade of gray as he looked up at the woman he had spent four years treating like dirt. “Hannah… please… let’s be reasonable. We have a child together. For the sake of Leo… we can structure a new deal. I’ll fire Clara. I’ll make it up to you.”
“The child stays with me, Julian,” Hannah said, holding up a certified document from the family court judge. “Since you’ve already signed an affidavit admitting to your long-term instability and intent to bring an unregistered third party into a legally disputed residence, the state has granted me temporary sole physical and legal custody. You can visit him every second weekend at a state-monitored facility in Cicero.”
She turned her back on them, walking toward the grand staircase to retrieve her son from the nursery, leaving the elite Vance-Sterlings to scramble in panic as the guards began to change the biometric locks on the doors.
As she reached the first step, she paused and looked back at her husband, who was weeping openly on the Persian rug.
“Oh, and Julian?” Hannah murmured, a beautiful, devastating smile touching her lips. “Don’t forget to take the trash out on your way to the street. I’ve heard the wind off the lake is brutal this time of year.”
