THE NURSE TOLD ME MY HUSBAND'S WIFE AND SON WERE ALREADY WITH HIM. I HAD BEEN HIS WIFE FOR SEVEN YEARS.

Three weeks later.

The battle had shifted from the boardroom to the deposition room of Ross & Vance Family Law, located on the sixteenth floor overlooking downtown Minneapolis.

Alistair sat across from me at the mahogany conference table. In three short weeks, he had aged ten years. His suit was wrinkled, his hair unkempt, and dark circles shadowed his sunken eyes. Finch Synergy had collapsed into involuntary bankruptcy, his investors had filed a federal lawsuit, and the bank had frozen all his accounts.

Sitting beside him was his court-appointed defense attorney, a weary man named Harrison who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world.

Across the table sat me, alongside my lead litigator, Marcus Vance.

"We are on the record," Marcus announced, clicking the recorder button. "This is the deposition of Alistair Finch in the matter of Ross v. Finch, Dissolution of Marriage and Special Civil Fraud Claim."

Alistair stared at me, his eyes burning with pure malice. "You think you've won, don't you, Jacqueline? You think you can take everything and leave me with nothing."

"Mr. Finch, refrain from addressing my client directly," Marcus warned sternly. "Now, let's address the marital property disclosures. On page eight of your sworn affidavit, you claim that the Edina townhouse was an 'investment property' owned solely by Finch Synergy."

"It was," Alistair lied through his teeth. "It was an asset acquired for corporate expansion."

I leaned forward, placing a fresh stack of documents on the table.

"Alistair," I said, my voice perfectly measured. "If it was a corporate asset, why did you register the utilities under Paige Miller’s social security number? And why did you transfer $50,000 from the company account to pay for a nursery renovation in that townhouse two months before Matty was born?"

Alistair's attorney leaned over and whispered frantically in his ear. "Don't answer that."

"I don't have to answer your traps!" Alistair sneered.

"You do under oath," Marcus reminded him smoothly. "Because if you refuse, the judge will draw an adverse inference, which will guarantee a summary judgment in favor of Mrs. Ross for full asset restoration."

Alistair slammed his fist on the table. "She doesn't deserve half of everything! She didn't earn it! She spent all her time in court while I was out there building a future!"

"Building a future?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "With Paige? The woman who signed a cooperation agreement with the District Attorney's office yesterday morning?"

Alistair froze. The color drained from his face so fast he looked like a corpse. "What... what did you say?"

"Paige Miller signed a plea deal," I informed him, leaning back comfortably in my chair. "In exchange for immunity from corporate fraud charges, she handed over all your private text messages, your offshore bank routing codes, and a recorded phone call where you instructed her to hide $500,000 in a shell account under her mother's name."

Alistair looked at his attorney, his eyes wild with panic. "Harrison... is this true? Did she betray me?"

Harrison sighed heavily, closing his notepad. "Alistair... it's over. They have you dead to rights on fraud, perjury, and asset dissipation. If we go to trial, you're not just going to lose the civil case—you're going to walk straight into a federal indictment."

Alistair slumped back into his chair, breathing heavily. He looked at me, his arrogance finally, utterly shattered.

"What do you want, Jacqueline?" he asked, his voice barely a broken whisper. "What do you want from me?"

I looked at the man I had loved for seven years. I looked at the man who had lied to my face, used my talents, forged my name, and tried to throw me to the wolves so he could play happy family with another woman.

"I want everything, Alistair," I said calmly. "You will surrender all rights to the Wayzata estate. You will sign over your remaining corporate equity to liquidate and reimburse the investors you defrauded. You will take sole responsibility for the $1.2 million forged equity loan. And you will execute an immediate, uncontested divorce settlement."

"If I sign that... I'll be bankrupt," Alistair begged, tears finally welling in his eyes. "I'll have nothing left. I won't even be able to pay for a lawyer for the federal investigation."