While I was closing the biggest business deal of my career in Chicago,

The Cook County Circuit Court annex was cold and smelled of floor wax and old paper.

Because of the high-profile nature of the corporate assets involved, the preliminary emergency deposition for the annulment and corporate civil forfeiture had been closed to the press.

I sat on the plaintiff’s side of the mahogany table, dressed in an ivory bespoke suit by Armani. To my right sat Eleanor Vance; to my left sat Julian.

Across the table sat Sebastian.

He looked like a ghost of the man who had stood on the Naples beach four days ago. He wore a rumpled gray suit provided by a court-appointed public defender named Marcus Cho. His hair was greasy, his eyes ringed with dark hollows, and his hands shook continuously on the table.

Gloria was not present; she was currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center due to flight risk concerns after agents found two forged passports in her condominium safe.

Alyssa sat in the corner of the room, flanked by an attorney assigned to her by the federal defender’s office. She was weeping silently, her hands resting over her stomach.

Judge Evelyn Harrison, a no-nonsense jurist in her late sixties with silver hair and a piercing gaze, adjusted her half-moon glasses and looked down at the documents before her.

“We are here on the emergency petition of Victoria Carter for an immediate judicial annulment of marriage on grounds of bigamy, intentional fraud, and criminal conspiracy,” Judge Harrison stated. “Mr. Cho, your client has filed an objection claiming entitlement to marital asset discovery. State your grounds briefly.”

Sebastian’s public defender cleared his throat nervously. “Your Honor, my client contends that despite the ill-advised ceremonial event in Florida, he and Mrs. Carter were legally married for eight years. During those eight years, marital property was accumulated. Furthermore, Miss Monroe is currently pregnant with Mr. Carter’s child, creating an urgent and undeniable necessity for interim spousal and child support from the marital estate.”

“Marital estate?” Eleanor Vance stood up, her voice cutting through the courtroom with the precision of a diamond blade. “Your Honor, we submit Exhibit G. This is the certified medical record and DNA diagnostic report subpoenaed yesterday from the Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago.”

Alyssa’s head snapped up. Her weeping stopped instantly.

“What is this?” Judge Harrison asked, taking the file from the bailiff.

“Miss Monroe claimed to be thirteen weeks pregnant with Sebastian Carter’s child,” Eleanor explained, her voice ringing clear and merciless. “However, the medical intake logs and fetal ultrasound reports—which Miss Monroe submitted to Carter Capital’s human resources department for maternity leave approval—were subjected to forensic verification.”

Eleanor turned toward Sebastian. “Would you like to tell the court, Miss Monroe, or should I?”

Alyssa began to hyperventilate. “No... please... don’t do this here...”

“Miss Monroe,” Eleanor continued, unyielding, “underwent a routine non-invasive prenatal paternity screen four weeks ago at a private clinic in Evanston. The genetic profile of the fetus was compared against the DNA sample provided by Miss Monroe’s former partner—a personal trainer from Scottsdale named Derrick Ramos, who recently relocated to Chicago at Miss Monroe’s expense.”

Sebastian froze.

He slowly turned his head toward Alyssa. The air seemed to leave his lungs in a single, agonizing gasp. “What?... What did she just say?”

Eleanor placed a second document before Judge Harrison. “The probability of paternity between Derrick Ramos and Miss Monroe’s unborn child is ninety-nine point nine percent. Sebastian Carter is not the father.”

The courtroom fell into an abyss of absolute silence.

Sebastian stared at Alyssa. His eyes were wide, wild, filled with an agony so profound it bordered on madness.

“You told me it was a boy,” Sebastian whispered, his voice cracking, rising into a strangled shriek. “You told me he was going to look like me! You told me we were building a dynasty! You swore on your mother’s life that the baby was mine!”

Alyssa covered her face with her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. “Sebastian, please! Derrick was a mistake! It happened right before we started seeing each other! I didn't know until the test came back! I was going to tell you... after the settlement!”

*“After the settlement?!”* Sebastian lunged across the table.

“Order!” Judge Harrison slammed her gavel. “Bailiff, restrain him!”

Two armed bailiffs grabbed Sebastian by his shoulders, slamming him back down into his chair. Sebastian began to laugh—a broken, hysterical, terrifying sound that echoed against the high plaster ceiling.

He had thrown away an eight-year marriage to an aristocratic billionaire heiress.

He had destroyed his reputation, his credit, and his entire future.

He had helped his mother commit federal felonies.

All for a woman who was carrying another man’s child, using him as nothing more than a human ATM to extract twenty-five million dollars from his wife.

I looked at him across the table.

For the first time since that terrible night in Chicago, I spoke directly to him.

“You always were remarkably easy to blind, Sebastian,” I said, my voice low, calm, and terrifyingly clear. “You were so desperate to feel like a powerful man that you believed anyone who stroked your ego. You thought I was cold because I demanded competence. You thought Alyssa was sweet because she fed your vanity.”

Sebastian looked at me, tears streaming down his hollow cheeks, his lips trembling. “Victoria... please. God, Victoria... forgive me. I didn't know. I was blind. Please don’t let them send me to prison. I have nothing left.”

“You never had anything, Sebastian,” I replied softly. “I gave you a life. And you decided you’d rather steal it.”

Judge Harrison looked down from the bench, her expression stern and resolute. She signed the decree before her with a heavy, final stroke of her fountain pen.

“The marriage between Victoria Carter and Sebastian Carter is hereby declared null, void, and dissolved *ab initio* due to bigamy and gross fraud. No marital property exists. All claims for spousal maintenance, legal fees, and asset discovery are dismissed with extreme prejudice.”

The gavel struck the wood with the sound of a closing tomb.