Chapter 5 - The Surgical Extraction
The process of dismantling a marriage when one party is under federal indictment is remarkably efficient.
Within forty-eight hours, my corporate attorney and Marcus Vance had filed an emergency motion for an absolute divorce on the grounds of egregious marital misconduct, grand larceny, and criminal association. Because Alex was currently being held without bail at the federal detention center in Rhode Island, he had zero legal leverage to contest anything.
A week after the incident at the cabin, I stood in the living room of our luxury Boston brownstone—a property that had been purchased using the proceeds of my medical practice.
Two large moving men were packing Alex’s remaining belongings into cardboard boxes. His expensive golf clubs, his designer suits, and his electronics were being stacked near the front door. Under the terms of the emergency court order, I had been granted exclusive occupancy of the home, and all joint accounts had been permanently frozen and liquidated to reimburse the money he had stolen from me.
The front door opened, and Eleanor Sterling walked in. She looked haggard, the stress of the past week aging her by ten years. She was no longer the proud, condescending matriarch who looked down her nose at my long hours in the hospital.
"Bella," she whispered, her hands trembling as she clutched her handbag. "Please... we need to talk."
"You have five minutes, Eleanor," I said, not looking up from the inventory list I was checking off. "The movers are almost finished, and the locks are being changed at 4:00 PM."
"You can't do this to us," she wept, stepping into the room. "Richard and I... our credit cards have been canceled. The bank says the stipend you were sending us was drawn from an account that’s now frozen due to the federal investigation. We can't pay our mortgage! We’ll lose our home!"
"Then I suggest you sell your mink coat, Eleanor," I said, my voice deadpan. "You stood in my cabin, watching your son harbor his mistress, and you called it a 'family tradition.' You knew he was lying to me. You knew he was spending my money on her. You were perfectly happy to enjoy the luxury my exhaustion provided, as long as it kept you comfortable."
"He's your husband!" she shrieked. "He made a mistake! He was seduced by a professional criminal! The lawyers say he could go to prison for a very long time! You have millions, Bella. You can hire the best defense attorneys. You can save him!"
I turned to face her, looking her directly in the eyes. The absolute certainty in my gaze made her step back.
"Alex didn't make a mistake, Eleanor. He made a choice. Every single day for fifteen months, he chose to betray me. He chose to break into my sanctuary. He chose to let his criminal mistress assault him in my house. I spend my life saving people who want to live. I don't waste my time or my money trying to salvage garbage."
"You're a monster," she whispered, her voice shaking with venom. "You're cold, unfeeling—"
"I’m a surgeon," I corrected her. "I know exactly when a limb is gangrenous and needs to be amputated to save the rest of the body. Your son is the infection. And I have just cut him out completely."
May you like
I gestured to the movers. "Take the boxes to the curb. And ensure this woman leaves the premises immediately."
As Eleanor was escorted out of the building, screaming obscenities that the neighbors would undoubtedly talk about for weeks, I felt a massive, invisible weight lift off my chest. The anatomy of my life was finally clean. The fracture had been reset, the hardware was in place, and the healing process could finally begin.
