Chapter 2 - The Cold Reality of an Empty Home
Jasper laughed as he poured another round of sparkling water for his mother,
Gillian,
and his sister,
Priscilla.
The steakhouse was bustling with the city’s elite,
and he felt like he truly belonged among them,
his chest puffed out with the arrogance of a man who believed his own lies.
"Hailey was always so dramatic,"
Priscilla said,
wiping a smudge of sauce from her lip,
"acting like a C-section is major surgery."
"She’ll be fine by the time we get back,
she’s probably already got the laundry started."
Jasper nodded,
checking his reflection in a nearby mirror,
feeling a sense of relief that he didn't have to deal with a crying baby or a recovering wife for a few hours.
He reached for his keys,
the heavy weight of the SUV fob giving him a sense of security,
unaware that the ownership of that vehicle was currently being dissolved by a team of lawyers.
When lunch finally ended,
two hours later,
Jasper walked out to the valet stand,
tossing his ticket to the attendant with a smug grin.
The attendant looked at the ticket,
then at a tablet,
and shook his head with a confused expression.
"I'm sorry,
Mr. Sterling,"
the attendant said,
"but that vehicle was removed thirty minutes ago by a private towing service."
Jasper’s face went pale,
then red with fury.
"What?
That’s impossible!
I have the keys right here!"
"The paperwork provided was a direct repossession order from Robertson Global Corp,"
the attendant replied,
handing Jasper a single sheet of paper that had been left for him.
Jasper snatched it,
his hands shaking as he read the cold,
legal jargon that stated the vehicle was a corporate asset that had been reclaimed.
He had to call an expensive ride-share just to get his family back to the apartment,
fuming the entire way about how Hailey must have messed up some paperwork.
When he finally pushed open the door to their luxury apartment,
expecting to find his wife in the kitchen,
he was met with a silence so profound it was deafening.
The apartment was cold,
the lights were off,
and the air lacked the scent of the leftovers he had told her to heat up.
He stormed into the nursery,
ready to yell at her for being lazy,
only to find the room completely stripped.
The crib was gone,
the rocking chair was gone,
and every stitch of clothing they had bought for Toby was missing.
He ran to the master bedroom,
flinging open the closet doors to find only his own suits hanging there,
looking lonely and pathetic.
Hailey’s side was empty,
not even a stray sock remained on the floor.
On the vanity,
where her jewelry used to sit,
there was a small,
transparent plastic bag containing the bus fare he had given her at the hospital.
Beside it was a note written on stationery with a gold-embossed crest he didn't recognize.
"You told me not to make this difficult,"
the note read,
"so I made it easy."
"I'm gone,
Jasper."
"And by the way,"
"my father says thanks for taking such 'good care' of his SUV."
Jasper sank onto the bed,
the weight of the silence finally beginning to crush him as his phone buzzed with an alert.
His business accounts,
the ones tied to his technology company,
May you like
were showing a massive 'pending' status on every major investment.
The bridge he thought he was crossing was currently being burned from both ends.
