Chapter 7 - The Ambush at the Office
Conference Room B smelled of expensive cologne and cheap desperation.
Marcus was pacing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, wearing a dark grey Tom Ford suit that looked ridiculous over his bruised jaw. Sitting at the table was Preston Sterling, a sixty-year-old attorney with slicked-back silver hair, cufflinks the size of silver dollars, and a smug, patronizing smirk plastered across his face.
When I entered with Sarah, Marcus stopped pacing. He took a step toward me, holding out his hands in a practiced gesture of conciliation.
"Maya, thank God," he said, his voice dripping with false tenderness. "You need to listen to me. Things got out of hand last night. Mom is devastated. She hasn't stopped crying. We can fix this, baby, but you have to stop this madness and come home."
I didn't move. I didn't blink. I took a seat across from Sterling and gestured for Sarah to sit beside me.
"Sit down, Marcus," I said, my voice dead and flat. "You're embarrassing yourself."
Marcus blinked, stunned by my tone. He slowly took the chair next to his lawyer.
Sterling cleared his throat, leaning forward and resting his manicured hands on an embossed leather folder.
"Mrs. Hayes," Sterling began, his voice dripping with condescension. "We are prepared to offer you an olive branch before this situation completely destroys your life. As we speak, the local press is running with the story of your violent assault on Mrs. Evelyn Hayes. We have twenty witnesses from the country club who saw you push an elderly woman into a table and strike your husband."
Sterling slid a legal document across the mahogany table toward me.
"This is an emergency post-nuptial agreement combined with a voluntary temporary custody transfer," Sterling continued smoothly. "You will surrender primary physical custody of Lily to Marcus and Evelyn for a period of twelve months while you undergo outpatient psychiatric rehabilitation. In exchange, Evelyn will drop the felony assault charges, Marcus will decline to file for divorce, and we will issue a joint public statement clarifying that this was a private medical misunderstanding."
I looked down at the document.
*Voluntary surrender of parental rights.*
*Waiver of claims to grandfather Arthur Hayes’s testamentary trust.*
*Waiver of all marital property and equitable distribution.*
They weren't just asking for Lily. They were asking me to sign my own execution warrant and thank them for the privilege.
Marcus leaned in, his eyes pleading. "Maya, please. Just sign it. Mom will let you visit Lily on weekends once you’re stable. We can still be a family. If you don't sign this, Sterling is going to file the police report. You’ll be in jail by tonight. You’ll lose your job. You’ll have nothing."
I stared at Marcus. Truly stared at him. The man I had loved. The father of my child.
Beneath the designer suit and the polished veneer, he was nothing more than a hollow, terrified shell.
I picked up the document.
Sterling’s smirk widened, believing he had won.
Slowly, deliberately, I tore the document in half.
Then I tore it into quarters.
I let the shredded pieces flutter from my fingers, scattering across Sterling’s pristine leather folder like confetti.
"Are you insane?" Sterling barked, his face turning red. "Do you have any idea what I will do to you in court?"
"You won't be doing anything in court, Mr. Sterling," Sarah Vance spoke up, her voice cutting through the tension like a razor. "Because within the next forty-eight hours, your client will be too busy retaining criminal defense counsel to worry about family court."
Sarah slid a single piece of paper across the table.
It was a copy of Detective Ramirez’s emergency arrest warrant for Evelyn Hayes on charges of felony child abuse and domestic battery.
Marcus’s face turned paper-white. "What... what is this?"
May you like
"That’s the warrant for your mother’s arrest, Marcus," I said softly, leaning across the table until my eyes were inches from his. "And if you don't get out of my sight in the next ten seconds, the next warrant Detective Ramirez signs will have your name on it for wire fraud and child endangerment."
***
