Chapter 3 · After Eight Perfect Years, My Wife Asked for Divorce

Chapter 3

The day after I got my divorce certificate, I went to the company.

Calling it a "company" didn't really do it justice. It was actually the entire conglomerate that my dad left me.

It was Sunrise Holdings.

It was a real estate empire valued at 1.5 billion dollars.

I was the sole heir.

But for the past eight years, I had never gotten involved in running the company.

The reason was simple. Claire wasn't into it.

She always said she didn't want to be some high-society wife, and it was just too much stress.

She liked things simple, just the two of us living an ordinary life, with me doing my own thing and running a small business on the side.

So I listened to her.

I left the group to a professional manager and set up a small consulting firm on the side. It brought in around 350 thousand dollars a year, which was plenty.

In her eyes, I was Richard, a small-time boss pulling in a little over 350 thousand dollars a year.

I was gentle, considerate, and never lost my temper.

I was easy to manipulate, easy to push around, and easy to fool.

Today, I finally put on that custom suit I'd kept stashed away for years.

Deep gray, tailored in the classic British style, my dad had it made for me before he passed, and I'd never worn it.

When the elevator doors opened on the top floor, the receptionist looked up, saw me, and just froze.

"Mr. Hayes?" she said.

I nodded at her. "Is David here?"

"Yes, Mr. Carter's in the conference room!" she blurted out.

She fumbled with the phone, but I walked right in without waiting.

There were seven or eight people in the conference room, all top executives from Sunrise Holdings.

David was sitting next to the head of the table, and as soon as he saw me walk in, he jumped to his feet.

"You're here?" David said.

"Yes," she murmured.

I glanced around the room.

A few of the veterans recognized me and stayed calm.

The newer guys exchanged glances, clearly having no idea who I was.

David cleared his throat. "Everyone, let me introduce Richard Hayes, he's the real owner of Sunrise Holdings. Starting today, he'll be taking over all operations."

There was a three-second silence.

Then a middle-aged guy with gold-rimmed glasses blurted out, "Mr. Carter, is this some kind of joke? I've been with the company for seven years, and I've never even heard of a chairman."

David shot me a look.

I didn't say a word, just slapped a stack of documents onto the table.

Share certificates, notarized papers, board resolutions, every single document accounted for.

The guy with the gold-rimmed glasses looked over the papers, and his face went pale.

"This..." he stammered.

"Any questions?" Richard pulled out a chair and sat down, his tone flat. "Speak up now if you've got something to say. If not, let's get back to the meeting."

No one said a word.

David smiled and slid a report over to me.

"Everything you asked for is here. The insurance, the funds, and that house Claire's mom was holding for her, and we traced the down payment, and it all came from your joint account."

I flipped through the report, page by page.

The 327 thousand dollars she sent to Susan was just the tip of the iceberg.

And quietly, over time, she'd funneled almost 200 thousand dollars out through her mother's account.

On top of that, there was the house in her mother's name, and the down payment alone was 267 thousand dollars, traced straight back to our joint account.

All in all, that was over 790 thousand dollars.

Eight years of marriage, and I really thought we were the kind of couple who'd face everything side by side.

It turned out, I was nothing but her personal ATM, bankrolling her ex and his mom the whole time.

I closed the report.

I said, "Sue her.

"Hit her with everything, transferring marital assets, fraud with our joint property, and the house ownership. File for it all. Don't let anything slip."

David nodded. "Edison's already got everything ready. We can file whenever you say the word."

I stood up and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

From the 46th floor, the whole city spread out beneath me.

In the distance, I could see a white building, Central City Medical Center.

Claire was probably there now, with Michael by her side, enjoying the "freedom" she just scored for herself.

I could picture her face right now, probably looking totally relieved, thinking everything was falling right into place for her.

Divorce me, take whatever money she felt entitled to, and go play caretaker for her old flame. And when he finally passed, she'd come crawling back to me for a second round.

Wasn't that just the perfect scheme?

Too bad.

What she didn't realize was the gentle Richard she'd known for eight years was long gone.

Chapter 3

The day after I got my divorce certificate, I went to the company.

Calling it a "company" didn't really do it justice. It was actually the entire conglomerate that my dad left me.

It was Sunrise Holdings.

It was a real estate empire valued at 1.5 billion dollars.

I was the sole heir.

But for the past eight years, I had never gotten involved in running the company.

The reason was simple. Claire wasn't into it.

She always said she didn't want to be some high-society wife, and it was just too much stress.

She liked things simple, just the two of us living an ordinary life, with me doing my own thing and running a small business on the side.

So I listened to her.

I left the group to a professional manager and set up a small consulting firm on the side. It brought in around 350 thousand dollars a year, which was plenty.

In her eyes, I was Richard, a small-time boss pulling in a little over 350 thousand dollars a year.

I was gentle, considerate, and never lost my temper.

I was easy to manipulate, easy to push around, and easy to fool.

Today, I finally put on that custom suit I'd kept stashed away for years.

Deep gray, tailored in the classic British style, my dad had it made for me before he passed, and I'd never worn it.

When the elevator doors opened on the top floor, the receptionist looked up, saw me, and just froze.

"Mr. Hayes?" she said.

I nodded at her. "Is David here?"

"Yes, Mr. Carter's in the conference room!" she blurted out.

She fumbled with the phone, but I walked right in without waiting.

There were seven or eight people in the conference room, all top executives from Sunrise Holdings.

David was sitting next to the head of the table, and as soon as he saw me walk in, he jumped to his feet.

"You're here?" David said.

"Yes," she murmured.

I glanced around the room.

A few of the veterans recognized me and stayed calm.

The newer guys exchanged glances, clearly having no idea who I was.

David cleared his throat. "Everyone, let me introduce Richard Hayes, he's the real owner of Sunrise Holdings. Starting today, he'll be taking over all operations."

There was a three-second silence.

Then a middle-aged guy with gold-rimmed glasses blurted out, "Mr. Carter, is this some kind of joke? I've been with the company for seven years, and I've never even heard of a chairman."

David shot me a look.

I didn't say a word, just slapped a stack of documents onto the table.

Share certificates, notarized papers, board resolutions, every single document accounted for.

The guy with the gold-rimmed glasses looked over the papers, and his face went pale.

"This..." he stammered.

"Any questions?" Richard pulled out a chair and sat down, his tone flat. "Speak up now if you've got something to say. If not, let's get back to the meeting."

No one said a word.

David smiled and slid a report over to me.

"Everything you asked for is here. The insurance, the funds, and that house Claire's mom was holding for her, and we traced the down payment, and it all came from your joint account."

I flipped through the report, page by page.

The 327 thousand dollars she sent to Susan was just the tip of the iceberg.

And quietly, over time, she'd funneled almost 200 thousand dollars out through her mother's account.

On top of that, there was the house in her mother's name, and the down payment alone was 267 thousand dollars, traced straight back to our joint account.

All in all, that was over 790 thousand dollars.

Eight years of marriage, and I really thought we were the kind of couple who'd face everything side by side.

It turned out, I was nothing but her personal ATM, bankrolling her ex and his mom the whole time.

I closed the report.

I said, "Sue her.

"Hit her with everything, transferring marital assets, fraud with our joint property, and the house ownership. File for it all. Don't let anything slip."

David nodded. "Edison's already got everything ready. We can file whenever you say the word."

I stood up and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

From the 46th floor, the whole city spread out beneath me.

In the distance, I could see a white building, Central City Medical Center.

Claire was probably there now, with Michael by her side, enjoying the "freedom" she just scored for herself.

I could picture her face right now, probably looking totally relieved, thinking everything was falling right into place for her.

Divorce me, take whatever money she felt entitled to, and go play caretaker for her old flame. And when he finally passed, she'd come crawling back to me for a second round.

Wasn't that just the perfect scheme?

Too bad.

What she didn't realize was the gentle Richard she'd known for eight years was long gone.