Chapter 5 - The Ultimate Verdict
Judge Harrison adjusted his glasses again, looking down at Doug with profound judicial disdain.
"Mr. Carter, your petition for summary asset division is not only dismissed with prejudice; your legal team's deliberate failure to conduct proper due diligence while attempting to defraud the court of marital equity has resulted in severe procedural violations," Judge Harrison announced coldly.
Doug raised his head slowly, his eyes welling up with desperate, humiliating tears. He looked across the aisle at me, his lips trembling, realizing the horrifying magnitude of what he had thrown away for a quick buck and a cheap suit.
He opened his mouth, his voice a pathetic, trembling whisper that barely carried across the room.
"Wait..." Doug choked out, lifting a shaking hand toward me. "Evie... please. Wait... can I stop the divorce?"
I didn't move a muscle. I didn't smile, and I didn't frown. I simply looked at him with absolute, serene indifference—the exact expression he had worn when he told me I was being discarded like expired trash.
Judge Harrison let out a dry, humorless cough. "That question, Mr. Carter, is entirely up to Mrs. Carter."
Doug turned his tear-streaked, ashen face toward the bench, then back to me, pressing his palms together in a desperate, pleading gesture. "Evie, come on! We were married for seven years! We built a life together! Okay, I was stupid, I got blinded by the money, I lost my mind for a second! But we can fix this! We can cancel the petition! Please... can we stop the divorce?"
The silence in the courtroom was deafening. Every eye was locked on me, waiting to see how the billionaire heiress would respond to her groveling, gold-digging ex-husband.
I stood up slowly, buttoning my Armani jacket. I looked down at Doug—this pathetic man who had smelled expired milk just weeks ago, who thought a scratch-off ticket made him a god, and who had tried to throw me into the gutter without a penny.
"Stop the divorce?" I asked, my voice echoing clearly through the quiet courtroom. I let out a soft, melodic laugh that carried zero warmth. "Doug, honey... you wanted a better life without me. Remember?"
Doug winced, flinching as if I had struck him across the face.
"And you know what?" I continued, stepping out from behind my table and collecting my leather binder. "You were entirely right about one thing. I am an anchor. And right now, I'm cutting the rope."
I turned to Judge Harrison, giving him a polite, respectful nod. "Your Honor, the respondent moves for immediate, uncontested dissolution of the marriage, with full retention of all separate properties, and an order placing all court and legal fees resulting from this fraudulent filing squarely upon the petitioner."
"Granted," Judge Harrison banged his gavel one final time. "Case closed."
I turned and walked down the center aisle of the courtroom, my heels clicking sharply against the marble floor, leaving behind the stale air of regret and broken illusions.
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Behind me, I could hear Doug breaking down in deep, ragged sobs, realizing that his $820,000 lottery win wasn't a ticket to the high life—it was the very price he had paid to lose everything.
As I pushed open the heavy double doors and stepped out into the brilliant, golden autumn sunlight of the city street, I took a deep, refreshing breath of fresh air. My empire was intact, my life was entirely my own, and the chapter of my life involving a penny-pinching fraud was closed forever.
