All Chapters of The Divorce That Ruined Him: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

SerenaFor a second, I was taken aback by her bold suggestion. She did not ask me first whether I wanted them. She just called and looked back at me with seriousness.“I have set up a meeting. Here is the address.” She handed me a piece of paper with the day and time. I nodded and did as she said. I went because she was right. I needed different people around me.After that dinner, I realized Victor had been right about her. She was indeed one of the few whose instincts I was going to trust.The first person I met was a forensic accountant named Dieter. He looked to be in his mid-sixties, Swiss. He shook my hand and sat down and asked me to describe the document irregularities I was aware of, then listened for close to an hour without even jotting anything down, which I found unsettling at first. Not until I realized he was really paying attention to every piece of information.Every time I stopped to think, he waited. Calmly. Not impatient, not distracted. I'm just watching me with t

ZaraI had been out of the facility for three weeks.People kept asking how I was adjusting. I said fine. They nodded and looked at me like they were checking something.The truth is, I was far from adjusting. I was working. Trying to smoothen things for the best.The flat Damien had arranged for me was small, which suited me. Clean, with a mini-sized desk by the window, which was what I needed. In the first week, I did not go out much. I sat at the desk and took my time to go through every piece of documentation I had kept in my head and began to transfer it into something I could work from.I tried recalling some names. Dates and their connections I had traced through the limited access the facility's system allowed.I had been very careful about what I saved on anything that could be monitored or transferred. I kept it up here, instead. All of it.I just needed to start one, and everything else flows behind it. I was not soft about what had happened to me.I want to be clear about

SerenaMaria suggested we make a conference. And here we are. I agreed before I was entirely sure why.This was more like an official opening. Attached is my name on the program under the Hale Group International heading. Visible but not loud. Present enough to register.Mara directly stated, “You can not run a six-billion-pound operation behind closed doors forever. People need to see you exist. They do not need just a speech. They have to see the face behind it as well.”I thought about it and realized she was right. And that was why I agreed to this conference.The conference was held in London, a hotel in the financial district that had been hosting investment events since before I was born. Three hundred and forty attendees, according to the program. Mostly institutional. A few private offices. Several people I recognised from Victor's files and had been briefed on by Marcus.I chose to wear a fitted grey suit. It wasn't my kind of style, but I had to look presentable. It fit co

Damien's PovI booked a flight at half past eleven at night from one of the most frequented booking sites, from the comfort of my study desk, with the screen the only light in the room, the rest of the flat dark and quiet.I sat there for a while after confirming everything was set, and I wondered about what I was doing.Zara's last words still echoed through my head."Don't lie to her again. Even by accident."I stared at the booking confirmation on the screen.The flight was real.The reservation was real.The city was real.For the first time since leaving Zara's apartment, this no longer felt like an idea. It was something I had already committed to.I leaned back slowly.What exactly was I supposed to say when I found Serena?The question had followed me all evening.Every answer I came up with sounded wrong."I'm sorry."Too late."I didn't know."Not enough."Rose manipulated me."An excuse.I tried again."I wasn't responsible for everything that happened."That sounded even w

SerenaI excused us and that is we enetered the room opposite us. The room had eight chairs and a table and a window onto a narrow courtyard and nothing else.Mara stayed outside, waiting for me. Park's people were in the corridor. I sat down because standing would have made it a different kind of conversation, and I needed this to be the kind where I could control what my face did.Damien sat across from me.He did not rush. I had expected him to rush. Three minutes is not very long, and most people, given three minutes, try to fit everything into the first ninety seconds out of fear that the door will close.He sat down. He put his hands on the table. He looked at me once, fully, as if checking and confirming if I was real. Then he started. Firstly, he complained about those forged documents. All of it. Seventy-eight percent of his asset base transferred over eight weeks while he was figuring out something different, thinking that was the reason for wrong turns. He said it withou