Jason dragged a hand down his face, struggling to salvage a shred of leverage. “Fine. The apartment is off the table. The car deposit is subject to review. But the cash reserves in the joint account are split fifty-fifty by default.”
“Correct,” Daniel agreed mildly. “Which brings us to the forensic reconciliation. Over the preceding seven months, unauthorized withdrawals totaling forty-eight thousand dollars were executed from the joint account. These funds were routed into your private holding account, and subsequently disbursed in tranches to a third-party beneficiary.”
No one needed to say her name. Allison looked as though she might vomit.
Jason slammed his palm onto the glass, rattling the water glasses. “I extended a personal loan to a friend who was in a crisis! There is no law against that!”
I stared at him with absolute, unyielding disgust. “A friend? A friend who requires you to launder my salary to pay her rent? A friend who wears my borrowed sweaters, drinks my wine, and sleeps with my husband?” I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “Please, Jason. Show me the promissory notes for these ‘loans’. I’m dying to see the repayment schedule.”
The café was dead silent now. Every patron within twenty feet was utterly paralyzed. I felt no shame. The burning humiliation I had suffered outside my bedroom door had incinerated any capacity for public embarrassment.
Suddenly, Allison buried her face in her hands, her shoulders heaving with performative sobs. “Catherine, please! Stop humiliating us in public! I know we sinned, but we didn’t set out to destroy you!”
“There are faces you memorize over a lifetime,” I said, ignoring her tears entirely. “Faces you think you could trust in the dark. But it’s only when the knife goes into your back that you realize the most familiar masks are the most fraudulent. From the second you dragged that suitcase into my foyer, this was a hostile takeover. My only sin was treating you like a sister instead of a liability.”
Allison gasped, looking to Jason for defense. But Jason didn’t look at her. He stared at me, his eyes wide with the realization that he was vastly outmatched. The unified front of the cheating lovers had fractured the moment their wallets were threatened.
“Mr. Jason,” Daniel said, closing a section of his binder. “If you accept Miss Catherine’s terms, we can expedite this privately. If you insist on pushing this fraudulent draft, we will petition the civil court for a full forensic audit. We will subpoena your bank records, your communication logs, and investigate the misappropriation of marital funds.”
“Is that a threat?” Jason sneered weakly.
“It is a roadmap of your impending legal destruction,” Daniel corrected.
Jason swallowed hard. I watched his Adam’s apple bob. He was terrified. Not of losing his marriage, but of losing his reputation, his control, and the hidden secrets he thought were buried deep in his hard drive.
