Craig hung up the phone with his hands trembling uncontrollably. Without a salary, facing a bitter divorce, and being forced to vacate the luxury apartment, he did not know who to ask for help anymore.
Only one person came to his mind in that moment of crisis, and that was Peyton.
He dialed her number three times in a row. On the third attempt, she finally answered the call.
“What do you want from me, Craig?” she asked quietly.
“I was set up at my job,” Craig explained frantically, pouring out all the details of the bribery accusation.
Peyton remained entirely silent while he explained everything to her.
Finally, she spoke up clearly. “Get certified bank statements right away, save all your emails, contracts, and messages, because if the deposit never existed, those documents can prove it. You also need to think carefully about who had a strong motive to harm you.”
“Would you please help me with this?” Craig asked weakly.
“I just helped you,” Peyton stated plainly.
“Peyton, please…” Craig started to say.
“This will be the absolute last time, Craig,” she interrupted.
The phone call ended instantly.
A few hours later, an unknown telephone number appeared on Craig’s screen.
“Craig, this is attorney Tyson Plummer,” the voice said. “Peyton asked me to take on your legal case.”
Craig closed his eyes tightly as relief washed over him. Even after everything that happened, she had still extended a helping hand to him.
However, it remained to be discovered who had wanted to destroy his career, and why Peyton had decided to help him one final time.
PART 3
The very next day, Tyson met with Craig in a coffee shop in downtown Minneapolis. He carefully examined the supposed payment receipt and frowned.
“This document has clearly been manipulated, but we need hard proof to clear your name,” Tyson said. “Go to your bank immediately and request a fully certified statement of all recent transactions.”
Craig obeyed without hesitation.
That same afternoon, he obtained the official document proving that no deposit of eight hundred fifty thousand dollars had ever entered his personal account.
Tyson filed a formal complaint for fraud and handed the evidence over to the company board. Craig thought the worst was finally over, but as he left the corporate building, his phone rang.
“Do you know who I am?” an arrogant voice asked through the receiver.
It was Oscar, a representative from a supply vendor whom Craig had rejected months earlier due to poor quality materials.
“It was you all along,” Craig said angrily.
Oscar burst out laughing over the line. “I warned you back then that it wasn’t in your best interest to make an enemy out of me.”
“You forged a financial receipt to frame me,” Craig said.
“Try to prove it was me in court,” Oscar taunted him.
Craig secretly recorded the entire remainder of that call on his device. For the first time in his life, he truly understood Peyton’s advice, realizing that the most dangerous attacks almost always came from people he already knew.
The police investigation moved very quickly after that. A graphic designer hired by Oscar confessed that he had been paid a large fee to fabricate the false bank document. The corporate office immediately lifted Craig’s suspension and officially cleared his name.
When Craig called Tyson to express his deep gratitude, he asked how much he owed in legal fees.
“You owe me nothing at all,” Tyson answered.
“What do you mean by nothing?” Craig asked in surprise.
“Peyton covered all of my professional fees in advance,” Tyson explained. “She also asked me to pass along a message to you, telling you to finally learn how to take responsibility for your own life.”
That specific phrase stayed with Craig for days afterward.
Meanwhile, life inside Craig’s household was falling apart completely.
The legal deadline Peyton’s attorney had given them to vacate the apartment was only two weeks away. Legally, the real estate belonged entirely to her, having been purchased before their marriage, and Craig did not want to fight for something he knew had never been his.
He managed to find a small, run-down apartment in the inner district of Cedar Riverside. It had two tiny bedrooms, a cramped kitchen, outdated furniture, and a monthly rent that he would have to pay entirely out of his own pocket for the very first time.
When Beatrice entered the small living room, she looked around with moist, disappointed eyes. “Are we really going to live in a place like this?”
“For now, yes we are,” Craig replied flatly.
Susan opened a narrow closet and turned to her brother with an angry expression. “And where am I supposed to put all of my things?”
Craig looked at his younger sister with deep exhaustion. “You are not coming to live with us here.”
“What do you mean by that?” Susan gasped.
“You are twenty-six years old and you finished university four years ago, so you need to get a job right now,” Craig said firmly.
“But you have never told me anything like that before!” Susan shouted.
“Because I never had to before,” Craig admitted honestly. “Peyton paid for almost everything we used, and I spent my own salary as if I had zero adult responsibilities.”
Beatrice tried to intervene immediately. “Don’t you talk to your sister like that, Craig!”
“Mom, that is enough right now,” Craig interrupted firmly. It was the very first time he had ever spoken to his mother with such absolute authority. “For years I let you make every single decision in my marriage. I let you constantly criticize my wife, take over her private house, judge whether she should have children, mock how she cooked, how she dressed, and how much she worked, while I stayed completely silent. That was entirely my fault too.”
Beatrice sat down on an old chair without answering him. Nobody ate dinner in that apartment that night.
Three days later, Susan successfully landed a job interview at a local insurance agency. It was certainly not her dream career, but for the first time in her life, she printed out her resume without anyone forcing her to do so.
Beatrice called her sister who lived in Omaha, asking if she could go stay with her for a while.
Craig finally understood that Peyton’s absence was forcing his entire family to do what they had spent years avoiding, which was growing up.
At the end of January, Craig received a brief text message from Peyton. “Tuesday at ten in the morning. Mediation Center. Divorce Agreement.”
Craig arrived at the building twenty minutes early.
Peyton arrived precisely on time, wearing a sharp beige business suit with her hair neatly styled up. She looked completely calm, neither visibly happy nor sad, just entirely composed, and that quiet indifference hurt him far more than anger would have.
The legal divorce agreement was remarkably simple. They had no children together, and they did not share any joint properties or bank accounts, so each person simply kept their own belongings. Craig signed every document without offering a single argument.
As she walked out of the building, he followed her onto the sunny sidewalk. “Peyton, please wait.”
She stopped and turned to face him. “What is it?”
“I am so deeply sorry for everything,” Craig said softly.
“You already told me that in a text message,” she pointed out quietly.
“Not like this,” Craig insisted desperately. “I want to tell you directly that I now understand things that I was completely blind to before. I understand that I left you entirely alone in a marriage where I was supposed to stand by your side.”
Peyton watched his face carefully. “I never needed you to get into huge fights with your mother, Craig, because I only needed you to set healthy boundaries.”
“I know that now,” Craig admitted with a heavy nod.
“I did not need you to support me financially either, because I earned a very good living on my own,” Peyton added smoothly. “I just wanted to feel like I wasn’t single handedly supporting a household full of capable adults.”
Craig lowered his head in utter shame. “Was there ever a moment where we could have still fixed our marriage?”
Peyton paused for a long moment before answering him softly. “There were many moments like that, and that was the exact problem, because there were far too many moments and you simply let every single one of them pass by.”
Craig felt a massive lump form in his throat. “Do you hate me now?”
