Chapter 3 - The Shattered Christmas Morning
By 8:00 AM on Christmas morning, the snow outside the Chicago estate was pristine and undisturbed, save for the crunch of tires against the gravel driveway as Roman’s high-end sports car sped toward the iron gates.
Roman felt invincible; his midnight rendezvous with Claire had been exhilarating, and he figured he could easily pacify a heavily pregnant Savannah with a diamond necklace and some hollow holiday platitudes.
He strode through the heavy oak front doors of the mansion, expecting to smell burnt cookies or find a weeping wife waiting anxiously by the tree.
Instead, the house was dead silent, echoing with a hollow chill.
“Savannah?” he called out, his voice laced with sudden irritation as he tossed his car keys onto the marble foyer table.
There was no answer. He walked into the kitchen—spotless, immaculate, and entirely abandoned.
A strange knot of unease tightened in his chest as he climbed the wide staircase, heading straight toward the master suite.
The door was ajar. The bed was untouched.
And then, like a physical blow to his stomach, he saw the wide-open door of the nursery.
Roman stumbled across the threshold, his breath catching in his throat.
Right in the center of the plush white carpet sat his discarded wedding ring, glinting mockingly under the morning sun.
Next to it was a formal legal notice stamped with the seal of Vanguard Global Investments.
He snatched the document up, his eyes scanning the bold black text detailing the complete liquidation of his corporate assets, the freezing of his personal accounts, and the immediate seizure of his primary residence.
Before he could even process the horror of what he was reading, his cell phone buzzed violently in his palm.
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It was his chief financial officer, screaming in panic that all corporate credit cards had been declined, federal investigators were currently raiding his downtown offices, and his bank accounts showed a balance of exactly zero dollars.
Roman staggered backward against the nursery wall, his face draining of all color as the terrifying realization struck him: his wife was gone, his empire was vaporized, and he had been systematically dismantled overnight.
