Chapter 4 - The Shattered Glass
When I reached the third floor of the hospital wing, chaos erupted. Two private security guards hired by Clara’s attorney, accompanied by Deputy Miller, stepped in front of room 314.
“Ethan Black! Stop right there or you will be placed under immediate arrest for trespassing and violating a judicial protective order!” Miller barked, unholstering his taser.
“Just five minutes!” I sobbed openly, uncaring that hospital staff, nurses, and patients were staring at the pathetic, disheveled billionaire breaking down in the corridor. “Please, Miller! I heard the audio! I didn't know! God help me, I didn't know she was pregnant! Just let me tell her I’m sorry!”
Suddenly, the door to room 314 clicked open. Clara’s attorney, Victoria Sterling—a ferocious, renowned advocate known for dismantling corrupt titans—stepped into the hallway. Her face was an icy mask of absolute disdain.
“Keep your voice down, Mr. Black,” Victoria said coldly. “This is an intensive recovery ward, not your personal boardroom drama.”
“Victoria, please,” I pleaded, tears streaming down my stubbled face. “Let me speak to Clara. Just thirty seconds. I need to look into her eyes.”
“Look into her eyes?” Victoria scoffed, stepping toward me with venom in her gaze. “So you can look at the frostbite scars your selfishness caused? So you can look at the tears she shed over the miscarriage you triggered? Clara is asleep under heavy sedation. But even if she were wide awake, she has signed an absolute restraining order against you. If you come within five hundred yards of her, you will spend the next six months in the county jail awaiting trial.”
Victoria pulled an envelope from her leather portfolio and shoved it hard against my chest. “Here are the formal divorce filings. Clara doesn't want your half-hearted apologies. She doesn't even want half of your fortune. She wants the entire Colorado estate, the original family trust, and every single cent tied to the Blackstone charitable foundation, which you abandoned years ago. And as for Blackstone Enterprises, the board of directors held an emergency vote twenty minutes ago. You have been stripped of your voting rights and removed as Chairman.”
The papers fluttered in my trembling hands. I looked down at Clara’s signature at the bottom of the page. The pen strokes were jagged and uneven, reflecting the frostbite damage on her fingers. Even holding the pen had caused her immense physical pain, yet she had pushed through it just to sever her ties with me forever.
“Take everything,” I whispered hoarsely.
Victoria paused, momentarily taken aback by my lack of resistance. “What?”
“Take it all,” I repeated, looking her dead in the eye. “The real estate portfolio, the penthouses, the bank accounts, the company shares. Transfer everything into Clara’s name. I won’t contest a single clause. I won’t fight a single asset. She can take every dollar I’ve ever earned in my miserable life.”
Victoria narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Don’t play the noble penitent now, Ethan. It doesn't suit you.”
“I’m not playing anything!” I shouted, my voice breaking with overwhelming sorrow. “I know I’m a monster! I know I destroyed the only person who ever truly loved me before I had a dime to my name! I don’t care about the money! Just tell her... please, Victoria, just tell her that I’m not leaving Colorado. I’ll sleep in my car outside this hospital if I have to. I will stay right here until she walks out on her own two feet.”
May you like
Victoria stared at me for a long time, searching my eyes for deceit. Finding none, her harsh expression softened slightly into one of profound pity. “You still don’t understand, do you, Ethan? Money isn't what she needed eleven years ago, and it’s not what she needs now. She needed a partner. And you chose to be a headline.”
Victoria turned around and re-entered the room, locking the door firmly behind her. The click of the deadbolt sounded like the closing of a tomb.
