Chapter 8
Alice listened to Kevin’s panic.
It was like music to her ears.
"I didn't do anything,
Kevin,"
she said calmly.
"The police are just doing their job.
Your father committed a crime."
"He didn't mean to!"
Kevin sobbed.
"You are ruining my family!
My mom is fainting on the front lawn!
The neighbors are recording us!"
"Tell Patricia to get up,"
Alice said coldly.
"She is embarrassing herself."
"You have to drop the charges,
Alice!
Please!
I will do anything!
I will give you the townhouse!
I will give you whatever you want!"
Alice leaned back in her chair.
"You don't own the townhouse yet,
Kevin.
The escrow is frozen.
My lawyer took care of that yesterday."
There was silence on the other end of the line.
"You...
you froze the house?"
"Yes.
And I am filing for an annulment.
You will receive the papers at your office by 3:00 PM today."
Kevin gasped for air.
He was hyperventilating.
"You can't do this!
We are married!
We promised for better or for worse!"
"This isn't worse,
Kevin.
This is abuse.
And you are a coward.
I will never speak to you again.
Have your lawyer call Marcus."
She hung up.
She blocked his number.
She felt a massive weight lift off her shoulders.
The chain was broken.
Down in the lobby of Kevin’s accounting firm,
a process server was walking through the revolving doors.
He carried a thick manila envelope.
He walked straight to the reception desk.
"Delivery for Kevin,"
he said.
"Legal documents."
Ten minutes later,
Kevin was standing in his cubicle,
holding the annulment papers.
His hands were shaking.
His coworkers were staring at him.
He had just returned from a lavish honeymoon in Hawaii.
He had just bragged about his gorgeous,
successful wife.
He had just shown off photos of the million-dollar townhouse.
And now,
two days later,
he was being served at work.
He opened the envelope.
The grounds for annulment were clearly stated.
Fraud.
Failure to protect.
Abuse.
He saw Marcus’s name at the bottom.
Marcus was famous in Chicago.
He destroyed people for a living.
Kevin felt his knees go weak.
He sat down heavily in his chair.
His phone buzzed.
It was his mother.
He answered it.
Patricia was screaming hysterically.
"They took him!
They took your father to the county jail!
They fingerprinted him!
He is in a cell with criminals!"
"Mom,
I know,"
Kevin whispered.
"I just got served with annulment papers."
Patricia stopped screaming.
"Annulment?
She can't do that!
She has no proof!"
Kevin rubbed his face.
"Mom.
I think she has proof.
I think she knows something we don't."
"Nonsense,"
Patricia snapped,
regaining her venom.
"She is bluffing.
She is trying to scare us.
I am calling my country club friends.
I am going to make sure she never shows her face in Chicago high society again."
Patricia was truly delusional.
She still thought social standing could stop a criminal conviction.
May you like
She still thought a rumor could fight a video recording.
She was about to learn a very hard lesson.
