Chapter 4 - The House of Cards Falls
By Friday,
the Coral Gables mansion looked like a war zone.
The white tent had been ripped down,
leaving yellowed grass where the roses had been.
I stood on the sidewalk,
watching the movers carry out a velvet sofa.
Evelyn was sitting on a suitcase by the curb,
her hair a mess and her makeup smudged.
She looked twenty years older than she had on the wedding day.
"Where are we supposed to go?"
she wailed as I approached.
"Spencer is in a motel,
and Penelope has moved back to her father’s estate!"
"The baby...
think of the baby!"
I looked at her,
feeling nothing but a cold,
hollow pity.
"The baby will be fine,
Evelyn."
"Penelope’s father has more than enough money to raise a grandchild."
"But you and Spencer?"
"You'll have to find a way to survive on your own."
Spencer came out of the house,
carrying a small cardboard box.
It was all he had left.
The ivory suit was gone,
replaced by a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans.
He looked at the house,
then at me.
"You're really doing this,"
he said,
his voice flat.
"You're taking the house where we lived for eight years?"
"I'm taking the house I paid for,"
I reminded him.
"The house where you planned a wedding to another woman."
"While I was away working to pay your debts."
"I would have shared everything with you,
Spencer."
"But you wanted a 'real woman'."
"Well,
here I am."
"A real woman who knows how to protect herself."
A black car pulled up,
and a man in a suit stepped out.
It was the process server.
He handed Spencer a thick envelope.
"What is this?"
Spencer asked,
his hands shaking.
"A lawsuit for the recovery of my grandmother’s ring,"
I said.
"And an itemized bill for every personal expense you charged to the company."
"The total is close to two million dollars."
Evelyn screamed,
a high-pitched sound that made the neighbors look out their windows.
"You're heartless!"
she cried.
"After everything I did for you!"
"You did nothing for me,"
I snapped.
"You lived off me like a parasite."
"You mocked my pain while you spent my money."
"Today,
the free ride ends."
The movers finished their work and locked the front door.
They handed me the keys.
The weight of the metal in my hand was the finality I needed.
I turned to the security team I had hired.
"Ensure they do not step foot on the property again,"
I instructed.
I walked to my car,
ignoring Spencer’s pleas for a "second chance."
"I gave you eight years of second chances,"
I said through the window.
"You used them all up on a girl who left you the moment the lights went out."
As I drove away,
I saw them in the rearview mirror.
A mother and son,
standing on the sidewalk with nowhere to go.
They were small,
insignificant figures in a very large world.
The mansion stood behind them,
dark and empty.
It was no longer a home.
May you like
It was just a building.
And I was moving on to bigger things.
