Chapter 6: The Vultures Circle
“I did,” I replied, my voice a flat, emotionless dial tone.
Vance hesitated, clearly trying to gauge my vulnerability. “How much, Clara?”
“That, Vance, is no longer any of your business.”
The line went dead quiet before he let out a strained, artificial chuckle. “Come on, Clara. Don’t be like that. We’re still—”
“My shift is starting,” I interrupted. “Unless one of our children is in the hospital, do not call me.” I ended the call and shoved the phone into my pocket.
What I didn’t know then was that Vance was standing on the edge of financial ruin. That half-million-dollar grocery chain contract he had bragged about? They had defaulted. His print shop was hemorrhaging cash, and the high-interest commercial loans he took out post-divorce were coming due. Silas was in even worse shape, drowning in over seven hundred thousand dollars of debt for his vacuum sealers.
When Vance ran to Loretta with the news of my five million, she didn’t see an ex-wife’s stroke of luck. She saw a divine bailout fund.
They didn’t call again. They ambushed me.
When they showed up at my door demanding two-and-a-half million dollars, citing their “moral right” to my newfound wealth, it wasn’t a request. It was an attempted extortion.
After I threw them out of my condo, telling Vance to prove his entitlement in front of a judge, Loretta unleashed hell. She activated the family network.
By noon the next day, my phone was a toxic wasteland. Uncle Boyd called to lecture me about how “family respects family” and how tossing Vance a lifeline was the Christian thing to do. Aunt Vada called to call me a greedy gold-digger who was leaving the father of my children to die in the gutter.
I hung up on all of them. Loretta was spinning a masterful narrative of my cruelty, conveniently omitting the fact that Vance hadn’t asked for a loan—he had demanded half my net worth as his property.
But then, the final escalation arrived. A text message from Vance lit up my screen:
“I consulted my lawyer. If those tickets were bought before the divorce was completely settled, or purchased with joint marital funds, I have every right to file for a revision of the asset division. See you in court.”
I stared at the glowing pixels. He was actually going to try and sue me. He was going to drag me through months of depositions, freeze my assets, and bleed me dry with legal fees based on a lie.
I didn’t panic. I felt a cold, terrifying calm settle over me. I took a screenshot of the threat.
I needed a silver bullet. And I knew exactly where to find it.
