Bankrupting My Husband’s Fake Perfect Family Chapter 13

Bankrupting My Husband’s Fake Perfect Family Chapter 13: Groveling in the Mud

The high-pitched shriek of the buildings security alarm tore through the lobby, vibrating in my teeth

“Get back, Clara!”

Sebastians arm was a solid, warm weight across my chest, shoving me behind the safety of his frame. He didn’t look at the shattered glass or the chaos. His eyes were fixed entirely on Julian.

Julian didn’t make it three steps.

The two guards who had been holding Liam pivoted instantly. They moved like a single machine, closing the distance before Julian could swing the iron pipe again. One guard caught the metal mid-air. The other drove a shoulder into Julians gut.

The iron pipe clattered onto the marble, ringing like a funeral bell.

“Down! Stay down!” the guard roared.

They hauled Julian through the jagged gap in the glass doors and slammed him onto the concrete steps outside. The rain was a torrential wall now, turning the night into a blurred, gray mess. They pinned him face-first against the wet stone.

“Let me go!” Julians voice was a ragged scrape. “Thats my wife! Clara, tell them!”

I stepped out from behind Sebastian, my shoes crunching over the diamond-bright shards of the shattered door. I didn’t stop until I reached the edge of the threshold.

The wind whipped the freezing rain onto my face, but I didn’t blink.

Julian was a ruin. His expensive wool coat was coated in a thick, brown slurry of mud and street grime. One side of his face was pressed into a puddle, his mouth filling with dirty water every time he tried to scream.

“Youre trespassing, Julian,” I said, my voice cutting through the wind. “And youve committed aggravated assault.”

“I don’t care!” Julian wrenched his head up, his eyes bloodshot and wild. “Clara, please. Liam told me you were here. I went crazy, okay? I lost it. Everything is falling apart.”

Sebastian stepped up behind me. He didn’t say a word, but his hand settled firmly on my waist, pulling me back against his chest It was a claim. A silent, devastating declaration of who owned the space beside me now.

Julian froze. He stared at Sebastians hand on my hip.

The rage in his eyes flickered and died, replaced by a hollow, terrifying realization. The man who had spent fifteen years treating me like a piece of furniture finally saw the house was empty.

“Get off him,” Sebastian commanded the guards.

“Sir?” the taller guard asked, hesitant.

“Let him up. Hes not a threat anymore. Hes a corpse.”

The guards stepped back, though they kept their hands near their holsters.

Julian didn’t stand. He didn’t try to fight. He stayed on the ground, his chest heaving as the rain soaked him to the bone Slowly,

painfully, he dragged himself onto his knees

He crawled forward a tew inches, his palms slapping into the mud

“Clara,” he choked out “I’m sorry Im so sorry About Chloe About the money About everything.”

“Youre sorry because the accounts are zero, Julian. Not because you lied.”

“No’ No, thats not it.” He slumped further, his forehead nearly touching the wet pavement. He was a former CEO, a man who once commanded boardrooms, now bowing in the dirt like a servant. “I was stupid Shes nothing. Chloe is a nightmare Shes been screaming at me for hours. She doesn’t care about me. Only you ever cared.”

“I stopped caring the second I saw that Porsche, Julian.”

“We can fix it!” He looked up, tears mixing with the rain on his cheeks. “We can go back. For the kids. Liam is right here Mia needs us Ill do anything. Ill sign a post-nup. Ill give you every cent I ever make. Just come home. Please, Clara. Come home and make this stop

I looked down at him. I waited for the spark of pity. I waited for the old habit of being the “fixer” to kick in.

Nothing happened. My heart felt as cold and hard as a polished stone.

“There is no home,” I said. “I sold the furniture yesterday. I sold the house this morning. Even the roses in the garden belong to a

stranger now.”

“You can’t mean that,” he whispered.

“I mean all of it.”

I turned my head slightly, looking up at Sebastian. He was watching me, his expression unreadable but his grip steady. I reached down and took his hand, lacing my fingers through his. I made sure Julian saw the movement.

Julian let out a sound that wasn’t human-a high, broken keen of absolute agony. He collapsed entirely, his face hitting the mud He began to sob, his shoulders shaking with the force of his failure.

“Mom?” Liams voice came from the shadows of the lobby. He sounded small.

I didn’t turn around. “Go with the guards, Liam. Theyll find you a shelter.”

Blue and red lights began to pulse against the wet buildings down the street. The sirens were a distant wail, growing louder by the second.

“The police are here,” Sebastian noted, his voice low in my ear. “Let’s go back inside. ”

“Wait,” I said, my eyes catching a movement across the street.

A taxi screeched to a halt behind the row of arriving police cruisers. The door flew open before the car had even stopped moving

Chloe tumbled out. She was disheveled, her hair a matted mess, clutching the five-year-old boy to her chest

She didn’t run toward Julian. She ran toward the line of police officers who were just stepping out of their cars Behind her, two men with handheld cameras and press badges emerged from the shadows of a nearby alley.

“Help!” Chloe screamed, her voice piercing the rain. “Help me! Shes trying to kill us!”

The officers stopped, their hands moving to their belts

“Over there!” Chloe pointed a shaking finger at the steps, her eyes landing on me She looked directly into the camera lenses of the reporters “Thats her! Clara Miller! She hired these men to beat Julian! She told them to kill me and my son so she could keep the insurance money!”

One of the reporters shoved a microphone forward “Miss, are you saying the embezzlement charges were a setup?”

“Everything was a setup!” Chloe wailed, clutching the boy tighter as he began to cry. “Shes a monster! Shes been planning this for months! Look at what she did to him!”

She gestured wildly at Julian, who was still groveling in the mud, surrounded by Sebastians guards.

The police officers drew their weapons, leveling them at the lobby.

“Hands in the air!” the lead officer shouted. “Step away from the victim!”

Sebastians grip on my hand tightened until it hurt. “Clara, get down.”

But I didn’t move. I watched Chloes face through the rain. She wasn’t crying. Behind the mask of terror, her eyes were bright with a desperate, calculating greed.

The trap wasn’t over. It had just changed shapes.