Chapter 4 - The Separation of Assets
By 7:00 a.m., the front lawn of the Casper home looked like a chaotic garage sale. Henry and Martha were furiously stuffing their clothes back into their suitcases, their initial arrogance entirely replaced by a frantic, undignified panic. Henry was cursing under his breath as he dragged his folding chair across the grass, while Martha sobbed loudly, calling every relative who would listen on her cell phone, spinning a wild, fictitious tale about how they were being assaulted by the police.
Edward stood by his truck, his arms crossed, watching two movers—whom Marcus Vance had preemptively hired and paid for out of Blair’s account to expedite the eviction—carry his personal wardrobe boxes out of the master bedroom.
"You're making a massive mistake, Blair," Edward said as she walked out onto the porch, watching the final items leave her threshold. He tried to assume a posture of cold superiority, though his eyes were wide with desperation. "You think you're strong because you have a law firm behind you. But you’re going to be alone in that big, empty house. No one else will ever tolerate your selfishness. When the divorce papers hit, I’m going to take half of everything you think you own."
"He won't take a dime," Marcus Vance said smoothly from behind her, lighting a cigarette and looking at the morning sky. "The prenuptial agreement has an explicit, ironclad infidelity and financial misconduct clause. The moment we file the police report for the forged signature on that $50,000 loan application, your legal leverage in a divorce court drops to absolute zero. In fact, Mr. Vance, you will be lucky if the state attorney doesn't indict you by the end of the month."
Martha ran up to the porch steps, her gray hair flying wildly in the wind, pointing a trembling, wrinkled finger at Blair. "You think you've won, don't you? You think you can just cast us aside like trash! My son is a good man! He deserved a woman who knew her place, not a cold, sterile corporate machine!"
Blair didn't look down at her. She kept her eyes fixed on the horizon, where the first pale rays of the Wyoming sun were finally breaking through the heavy gray clouds, illuminating the mountains in the distance.
"My place, Martha," Blair said, her voice steady and full of an unshakeable authority that made the older woman take a step back, "is inside the house that I paid for. Your place is somewhere else. Your time in my home is officially expired. Get off my property."
Officer Miller stepped forward, tipping his hat toward the street. "Move along, folks. The hour is up. If that truck is still parked in this driveway in three minutes, I will have it towed for trespassing."
Henry slammed the tailgate of his truck shut, grabbing Martha by the arm and shoving her into the passenger seat. Edward looked at Blair one last time, hoping to see a flicker of regret, a single trace of hesitation that he could exploit. But she simply stood there, flanked by her lawyer and the law enforcement officers, her expression as unyielding as the mountains surrounding the valley.
With a loud, angry screech of tires, Edward’s truck pulled out of the driveway, followed closely by his father’s sedan, their tail lights disappearing into the cold morning mist.
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The street returned to its quiet, suburban silence.
Blair took a deep, shaky breath, the cold air filling her lungs, clearing away the lingering smell of her husband’s betrayal. She looked at the new digital lock on her front door, then down at the phone in her hand. The nightmare of the previous night was over, but she knew that the battle for her freedom, her finances, and her peace of mind was only just beginning.
