Chapter 9 - THE TOTAL LIQUIDATION
The rain in Chicago had turned to sleet by midnight.
Ryan Mitchell sat on the wet curb outside the Lincoln Park penthouse building, shivering uncontrollably. He had no coat. His tuxedo jacket was torn, his shirt soaked through with freezing rainwater. Across the street, two heavy-duty flatbed tow trucks were already hauling away his Mercedes-Benz and Amber’s Porsche Cayenne, their orange emergency lights flashing against the darkened apartment windows.
On the sidewalk beside him lay three black trash bags.
Inside those bags were his personal clothes—the only items the sheriff’s deputies had permitted him to take before changing the biometric deadbolts on the four-million-dollar penthouse.
A yellow taxi pulled up to the curb.
Amber emerged from the building lobby, flanked by an armed private security guard. She wasn't crying anymore. Her face was set in a mask of cold, vicious calculation. She carried two Louis Vuitton suitcases—the only personal property her lawyers had managed to claim as pre-marital assets.
"Amber..." Ryan croaked, pushing himself up from the wet curb, stumbling toward her on trembling legs. "Amber, please... we have to stick together. We can get a motel... I can call some headhunters in Dallas... I still have contacts..."
Amber stopped beside the open taxi door. She looked at him with an expression of disgust so absolute it made his stomach heave.
"Get away from me, you pathetic loser," Amber spat, her voice flat and completely devoid of warmth.
"Amber, I’m your husband!" Ryan pleaded, tears mixing with the freezing rain on his cheeks. "We took vows! Five years!"
"I married a Chief Operating Officer with a four-million-dollar penthouse," Amber said ruthlessly. "I didn't marry a homeless, blacklisted felon with eight million dollars in personal debt."
She pulled an envelope from her purse and shoved it hard against his wet chest.
"Petition for Immediate Dissolution of Marriage on grounds of financial fraud," Amber said, her red lips curving into a sneer. "My attorney filed it electronically twenty minutes ago. I’ve already spoken to the SEC investigators, Ryan. I gave them full access to your personal laptop and the offshore account routing numbers Donald Sterling gave you. I’m cooperating as a state witness. You’re going to federal prison, Ryan. And I’m going to Miami."
"You... you sold me out?" Ryan gasped, his world crumbling into an even deeper, darker abyss.
"You sold yourself out the day you walked into that woman's boardroom," Amber replied coldly. She slid into the back of the taxi and slammed the door shut.
"Amber! Don't leave me!" Ryan screamed, banging his fists against the tinted glass as the cab pulled away from the curb, splashing freezing street water across his ruined trousers. "AMBER!"
The red taillights disappeared into the misty Chicago night, leaving Ryan completely, utterly alone on the pavement.
***
Seventy-two hours later, the private waiting room outside the Cook County Family Courthouse was dead silent.
Ryan sat on a wooden bench, wearing a cheap, wrinkled suit he had purchased from a discount clearance rack with the last seventy dollars in his checking account. His hair was greasy, his eyes hollow, dark purple bruises encircling his sockets. His hands would not stop shaking.
The heavy courtroom doors opened, and Marcus Vance stepped out, accompanied by two elite family law litigators.
Ryan jumped up from the bench like a starving dog spotting a bone. "Marcus! Marcus, please! Is the judge going to hear my petition?! I’m Leo’s biological father! A father has fundamental constitutional rights! She can't keep my son from me! If she gives me partial custody, I can rebuild my life... I can be a father to him!"
Marcus Vance halted. He didn't look angry. He looked at Ryan with the cold, scientific curiosity of a biologist examining an extinct specimen.
Marcus pulled a certified, red-ribboned court order from his leather briefcase.
"The petition has already been dismissed with prejudice, Mr. Mitchell," Marcus stated plainly. "Judge Henderson reviewed the Dayton surrender decree you signed five years ago in Room 412. He reviewed the audio recording of you stating that the child was an unwanted expense that you wished to abandon to avoid child support."
Marcus stepped closer, tapping the legal paper against Ryan’s hollow chest.
"Judge Henderson has issued a permanent, non-expiring order of protection. You are legally barred from coming within one thousand yards of Olivia Parker, Leo Parker, Vance Global properties, or any educational institution Leo attends. If you attempt to contact either of them via telephone, mail, third party, or electronic means, you will be arrested immediately and held without bail."
Ryan’s knees buckled. He slid down against the wooden wall, collapsing onto the courthouse floor, clutching his head in his hands.
"I have nothing left..." Ryan sobbed, his voice echoing down the empty marble corridor. "She took my company... she took my home... she took my wife... she took my son... I have nothing left in this world..."
Marcus Vance adjusted his spectacles, looking down at the broken man on the floor.
"You gave it all away, Ryan," Marcus said softly. "Olivia didn't destroy you. Your own boundless vanity destroyed you. You looked at a diamond and threw it in the dirt because you preferred a piece of shiny green glass. Now, you get to live with the reflection of the man you truly are."
May you like
Marcus turned on his polished heel and walked away, his measured footsteps fading down the grand staircase, leaving Ryan Mitchell alone in the dust of his own making.
***
