Chapter 8 - The Clean Slate
With the criminal proceedings concluded, Naomi and I met Bennett and his exhausted public defender in a small conference room for the final signature on the divorce settlement.
The terms were ruthlessly fair. In exchange for my agreeing not to pursue additional criminal embezzlement charges against him for the stolen joint funds, Bennett forfeited all legal claims to our home, our retirement portfolios, and my family trust.
Furthermore, he signed an agreement granting the court permission to garnish twenty-five percent of his future wages for the next ten years until he fully reimbursed the stolen funds that the federal court hadn't recovered from Heather's frozen accounts.
He held the pen over the signature line for a long time, his hand shaking slightly.
"You took everything from me, Clara," he muttered bitterly, staring down at the thick stack of legal parchment.
"No, Bennett," I replied calmly, setting my hands gently on the table. "You threw everything away. You handed it to a con artist on a silver platter because you wanted to hurt me. You were so busy trying to destroy my life that you didn't even notice the trap closing around your own neck."
He signed his name on the final line with a scratch of ink.
Naomi took the document, inspected the signature, stamped it with her notary seal, and slid the finalized copy into her leather portfolio.
"It is finished, Mr. Clark," Naomi said. "You are officially divorced. Mrs. Clark has also filed an application to legally restore her maiden name, Clara Vance-Montgomery."
Bennett flinched at the sound of my family name, the name he had tried so hard to diminish and control throughout our eight years of marriage.
He slowly stood up, pushing his chair back. He didn't have his tailored suits anymore. He had a battered cloth duffle bag slung over his shoulder and a bus pass sticking out of his shirt pocket.
"Are you happy now?" he asked, looking at me with a mixture of sorrow and resentful shame.
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"I’m not happy about the pain you caused, Bennett," I said, looking him straight in the eye with complete emotional detachment. "But for the first time in eight years, I am completely at peace."
He turned without saying another word, walking slowly down the courthouse corridor into a future entirely devoid of the wealth, comfort, and status he had once taken for granted.
