Chapter 5 - The Surgical Recovery and Mutual Destruction
While the corporate board was systematically dismantling Kenneth’s professional network, room 412 of Saint Anthony Medical Center was the site of an entirely different kind of disaster.
The doctors had successfully separated Kenneth and Maya late that afternoon, but the physical and emotional toll was catastrophic. Because the industrial adhesive had bonded skin-to-skin across multiple sensitive contact points, both of them required extensive dermatological treatment, skin grafts in minor areas, and heavy bandages that made them look like mummies fresh out of a low-budget horror film.
Worse still, the story had leaked.
Local news blogs and social media channels in Denver had gotten hold of the 2:00 a.m. emergency room dispatch log. By noon, headlines like “High-Society Cheaters Gluewed Together in Midnight Liaison” and “Cherry Hills Executive Stuck in Sticky Situation” were trending across Colorado Facebook groups. Memes of superglue bottles photoshopped next to luxury sports cars were flooding the internet.
When I walked into room 412, holding a manila folder under my arm, the scene was pure chaos.
A nurse was trying to calm Maya, who was sobbing uncontrollably into her pillow, her face wrapped in gauze and bandages. Kenneth was propped up on the bed, his hospital gown askew, his skin blotchy and irritated from chemical solvents.
When he saw me enter, his eyes widened with panic and pure, unadulterated hatred.
"Sabrina!" Kenneth croaked, his voice raw from screaming at the medical staff. "Get her out of here! Call my lawyer! This is harassment! She poisoned me! She laced my grooming products with industrial chemicals!"
"Quiet down, Kenneth. Your blood pressure monitor is beeping dangerously fast," I said calmly, walking over to the foot of the bed and resting my hands on the metal railing.
"You did this!" Maya shrieked from the adjacent recovery bed, her voice muffled through the bandages. "You set us up! You witch!"
"I set you up?" I raised an eyebrow, letting out a dry, humorless chuckle. "Maya, nobody forced you to crawl into my bed with my husband while my brother was at home taking care of your children. You chose greed, just like Kenneth chose treason."
Kenneth glared at me, his chest heaving under his hospital blanket. "You think you're so smart, Sabrina. You think you've won. But you can't touch me. My name is on the house, my investments are protected by prenups, and—"
"Your prenups?" I interrupted, pulling a single document from my folder and sliding it across his tray table. "You mean the prenups that depend upon the validity of our marriage contract?"
Kenneth glanced down at the paper. It was a formal petition for annulment based on fraud, coercion, and medical battery.
"What is this?" Kenneth whispered, his bravado suddenly faltering.
"That is your eviction notice from reality," I said smoothly. "Thanks to the medical records I recovered from your office safe, we have filed criminal charges against you for unauthorized medical manipulation and bodily mutilation. Furthermore, Rollins Global has filed federal suits for corporate espionage, insider trading, and embezzlement. Every asset, every car, every credit card, and every offshore account you tied to Summit Holdings has already been frozen by a federal judge this morning."
Kenneth stared at the paper, his face turning an alarming shade of grayish-white. "You... you frozen my accounts? You can't do that! I'm a partner!"
"You were a parasite," I corrected him, stepping back toward the door. "And parasites don't survive when the host wakes up."
Just as I turned to leave, the door swung open again. Justin walked in, flanked by two divorce attorneys and a process server holding a thick stack of legal papers.
Justin walked straight up to Maya’s bed, dropped divorce papers and a custody petition right on her lap, and looked down at her with eyes colder than winter ice.
May you like
"Sign the papers, Maya," Justin said quietly. "And don't ever expect to see the kids again without a court-appointed supervisor."
As Maya wailed in despair, Kenneth slumped back against his pillows, realizing for the first time that his carefully constructed house of cards had completely burned to ash.
