Vance Medical Technologies was in his name. The mansion was in his name. The accounts had been entirely drained three days before I filed for divorce. Every document showed the exact same thing: I had absolutely nothing.
I sat at the plaintiff’s table in a simple gray coat, hands folded, face entirely calm. Julian hated that calm. He had spent years trying to break it.
“Say something, Iris,” he said softly. “Beg, maybe.”
Nora touched his arm and gave me a pitying, theatrical smile. “She looks tired. Poor thing.”
My attorney, Marcus Hale, leaned toward me. “Now?”
I looked at the judge. Then at Julian.
“Now,” I whispered.
Slowly, I stood.
The dynamic in the courtroom shifted instantly. Cameras from the legal press clicked rapidly. Julian frowned for the very first time.
I removed my coat.
A cold shock passed through the room. The scars across my ribs, shoulders, and arms were not small. They were long, pale, and cruel, carved into my body like a history Julian thought his money had successfully erased. Nora’s smug smile vanished.
