Chapter 6 - THE LIQUIDATION
By noon,
the video was all over social media.
A local news crew had captured Dr. Celeste Voss,
the 'Diamond of Aesthetics,'
screaming at movers as they rolled an ultrasound machine out the door.
She was still wearing her wedding hair,
the expensive curls falling into her eyes.
Beside her,
Adrian looked like a man watching his reflection shatter.
The elite crowd that had chuckled at the wedding,
was now posting the video with laughing emojis.
High society is a fickle beast.
They love a winner,
but they feast on a loser.
I walked through the clinic’s lobby an hour later.
The marble floors were dusty from the movers' boots.
The gold monogram on the wall was missing the 'V.'
It looked like a tomb.
Adrian saw me first,
he rushed across the room,
his expensive Italian shoes scuffing the floor.
"You're a monster,"
he spat,
his face red with fury.
"You did this because you're jealous."
"You couldn't stand that I found someone better."
I looked around the empty lobby,
at the bare walls where awards used to hang.
"Is this 'better,'
Adrian?"
"A wife whose career is over?"
"A home that's being sold at auction?"
"A reputation that's been liquidated?"
Celeste came out of her office,
her eyes red and swollen.
She looked at me,
and for a second,
I saw the doctor she used to be.
"Why?"
she whispered.
"I didn't even know you."
"That was your mistake,"
I said.
"You took twenty million dollars from a ghost,"
"because you were too arrogant to wonder who she was."
"You thought I was just an 'anonymous angel.'"
"But angels have swords,
Celeste."
"And you were spending money that belonged to the woman your husband broke."
I handed her a business card.
"My firm is hiring a junior consultant for medical data."
"The pay is modest,"
"but I hear you need the money."
She didn't take the card.
May you like
It fluttered to the marble floor,
landing in the dust.
