Chapter 3 - The Cold Reality
The next morning, the sun rose over a Chicago skyline that looked breathtakingly crisp, but inside Mark Peterson’s condominium, the atmosphere felt like a tomb.
Mark sat at the kitchen island, staring blearily at his phone. It had been vibrating with frantic texts from his mother since 6:00 AM.
“Mark, what is the meaning of the police report Frank received this morning? Call me immediately!”
“Megan is hysterical. That lawyer friend of Chloe’s—Marcus Vance—just sent a legal notice regarding defamation and battery charges!”
“Fix this. Now.”
Mark rubbed his face, his skin gritty with exhaustion. He hadn’t slept. When the police had escorted Sarah in last night to pack two large suitcases of Chloe’s and Lily’s things, Mark had tried to talk to Sarah, to ask where they were. Sarah had simply looked at him with absolute contempt and walked out without saying a single word.
He picked up his phone and dialed Chloe’s number.
It went straight to voicemail.
He tried again. Straight to voicemail.
Frustrated, he dialed Zoe’s number. It picked up on the third ring.
“Mark,” Zoe’s voice came through, dripping with ice. “If you’re calling to ask where Chloe is, save your breath. She’s sleeping. And you are blocked on every device known to modern science.”
“Zoe, stop being dramatic,” Mark snapped, his defensive instincts flaring up. “This has gone completely insane. Chloe lost her temper, she assaulted my sister, and now you guys are running around with cops and lawyers over a family squabble?”
“A family squabble?” Zoe’s voice rose, vibrating with suppressed fury. “Your sister hit a five-year-old child across the face hard enough to leave a handprint, Mark! And you told your wife to ‘let it go’ and sent them out into the freezing night in house slippers! You are not a husband; you are a coward wearing a suit.”
“I was trying to keep the peace!” Mark yelled.
“No, you were protecting your inheritance and your daddy’s approval,” Zoe shot back. “Well, congratulations, Mark. You kept the peace. And in exchange, you just lost your entire family. Talk to your soon-to-be-ex-wife’s divorce attorney on Monday. Goodbye.”
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Mark dropped his phone onto the granite counter. The silence in the apartment felt deafening. He looked around the pristine, designer-decorated kitchen that Chloe had meticulously designed, noticing for the first time all the little touches that made it a home—and realizing how hollow it looked now that she and Lily were gone.
For the first time, a cold knot of dread began to form in his stomach.
What did I just do? he thought.
Then his phone lit up with an email notification.
May you like
Subject: Emergency Petition for Sole Custody, Exclusive Occupancy, and Financial Restraint.
Mark opened the attachment, and as his eyes scanned the legal demands, the color drained completely from his face.