My Husband Whipped Me With a Belt Just to Show Off in Front of the Woman at His Side. Shaking and covered in bruises, I tried calling my Dad. — Part 2
Julian stumbled back a step, his breath catching. “No… no, this is impossible.”
The CFO’s voice arrived entirely broken, frantic with panic. “What the hell did you do, Julian? Pendelton Holdings just withdrew its entire capital backing. The central banks are demanding immediate, full repayment of our outstanding loans. The venture capitalists are pulling out. We have 1.8 billion dollars in active liability and absolutely zero liquidity. We are completely wiped out!”
“No,” the CFO barked back through tears. “What’s impossible is that you spent years stupidly believing that firm actually belonged to you.”
Right then, the heavy, reinforced front doors of the mansion were violently thrown open.
Part 2: The Reversal of Fortune
Six imposing men dressed in tailored black tactical suits strode into the mansion without asking for permission. They didn’t move like standard corporate bodyguards; they moved with a precise, chilling military efficiency, navigating the space as if they already owned every single square inch of the property.
Two men immediately secured the grand entryway. Another two flanked Julian, cutting off any escape routes. Following tightly behind them were private paramedics carrying specialized medical kits.
“Mrs. Pendelton,” the lead medic said gently, dropping to his knees directly in front of Clara. “We are going to lift you up very carefully.”
Julian finally broke out of his paralysis, shouting defensively, “Hey! Nobody touches my wife in my house!”
One of the black-suited security operatives turned a glacial, emotionless gaze toward him. “Step back.”
The command was so lethal, so entirely devoid of hesitation, that Julian instinctively stepped away without even realizing he was obeying.
Sienna backed away nervously toward the wet bar, her hands desperately clutching her stomach. “Julian, talk to me. Tell me what is going on!”
He couldn’t answer. His gaze was locked onto Clara, desperately trying to recontextualize every single day of their seven-year marriage.
She had never flaunted expensive jewelry. She never cared to appear in high-society magazines. She never spoke of her lineage and had always signed legal documents with just her maiden initials.
Clara Pendelton Vance.
The prominent Pendelton name he had always arrogantly assumed was just a common coincidence.
At that moment, an elegant man with silver hair, wearing a sharp gray suit and carrying a locked titanium briefcase, entered the foyer. It was Attorney Vance Sterling, the head legal counsel for Arthur Pendelton’s global estate.
He leaned down, picked up the blood-stained postnuptial agreement from the floor, and reviewed it with blatant disgust.
“An asset agreement signed under extreme physical coercion and duress,” Sterling noted smoothly. “Utterly useless in a court of law. And frankly, embarrassingly stupid.”
With a calm, deliberate motion, he tore the contract into four clean pieces and let the fragments flutter down onto Julian’s designer shoes.
“You have exactly ten minutes to completely vacate this property.”
Julian let out a high-pitched, nervous laugh. “Vacate? My name is explicitly on the real estate deeds of this mansion!”
Sterling popped the latches of his briefcase, pulling out a stack of certified deeds. “Your name is on a temporary residence authorization funded entirely by a private offshore trust belonging exclusively to Mrs. Clara Pendelton. You do not own this house. You do not own this land. You don’t even own the fountain flowing in the driveway.”
Julian’s face drained entirely of color. “My firm… my equity…”
“Your investment firm was secretly bailed out three years ago using Clara’s personal capital,” Sterling delivered the crushing blow. “The board directors who voted to keep you in power were hand-picked by Pendelton Holdings. The massive lines of credit you constantly boasted about in Wall Street interviews depended entirely on her signature as your guarantor.”
Clara kept her eyes fixed on him, her voice quiet but piercing. “I never wanted to humiliate you, Julian. I only kept the secret because I wanted to know if you would ever truly love me without believing you were doing me a favor by existing.”
Sienna burst into an artificial, frantic sob. “I didn’t know anything about this! He lied to me! He told me he was finalizing his divorce and that Clara was just a draining, pathetic burden!”
Sterling turned a cold stare toward her. “You knew significantly more than you claim, Ms. Cross.”
Sienna clenched her jaw, trying to play her final card. “I am pregnant with his child! You cannot legally throw a pregnant woman out onto the street!”
Clara sat forward in the armchair, her voice laced with an unshakeable authority. “Show him the file, Sterling.”
Sterling pulled a sealed medical envelope from his briefcase. Julian’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What file?”
“St. Jude Women’s Clinic,” Sterling read aloud from the certified document. “Patient: Sienna Cross. Comprehensive blood panels executed exactly 48 hours ago. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin levels: absolute zero. The patient is not pregnant.”
Sienna froze, her breath catching in her throat.
Sterling continued without missing a beat, “Furthermore, medical history confirms a voluntary tubal ligation procedure performed four years ago. A natural pregnancy is a biological impossibility.”
A suffocating, dead silence fell over the grand foyer. Julian turned slowly, his eyes wild as he stared at the woman beside him. “You’re… you’re not pregnant?”
She stumbled backward against the bar. “I was going to fix it! I just needed you to execute the divorce papers first! You were never going to leave Clara unless you believed you were building a brand-new legacy with me packs!”
“I destroyed my entire life’s work for you!” Julian roared.
