Chapter 8 - The Party Turned Trial
At first, the celebration looked exactly as Anthony had imagined.
Champagne flowed. Cameras flashed. Eleanor accepted compliments about her outfit while telling guests that her son had escaped an impossible marriage.
Anthony stood beside the windows, smiling as if the penthouse were still partly his.
Marissa remained near Noah, listening quietly.
The first disruption came when Eleanor’s boutique delivery arrived.
A staff member requested another form of payment.
“My card is on file,” Eleanor said.
“It was declined.”
Eleanor laughed nervously and tried again.
The second attempt failed.
Then the champagne account stopped processing additional orders.
The private driver assigned to Eleanor received instructions to end his service.
Guests began whispering.
Anthony approached Marissa.
“Fix the card.”
“The divorce is final.”
“That doesn’t mean you can embarrass my mother.”
Marissa lifted the canceled card.
“This card stopped working the moment our divorce became final.”
Phones rose around the room.
Anthony’s face twisted with fury.
“You humiliated my mother in front of everyone!”
Marissa delivered the truth he had refused to understand for years.
“She’s your mother, Anthony. Not mine.”
Eleanor stepped forward.
“You cannot take back gifts.”
“Temporary account access is not a gift,” Rachel said, entering from the hallway. “Neither is unauthorized spending.”
Two penthouse employees began collecting merchandise that had not been paid for.
Marissa explained that Eleanor’s lunches, shopping, drivers and memberships were now Anthony’s responsibility.
Then she added the sentence that silenced the room.
“And the credit card wasn’t the most expensive thing I removed.”
Anthony noticed the envelope on the floor.
He lunged toward it, slipped beside the spilled wine and fell to one knee.
No one laughed.
The silence was worse.
He tore open the envelope.
The first document notified him that his consulting company was now under creditor control.
The second demanded repayment of misused funds.
The third ended Eleanor’s temporary occupancy of her apartment.
Anthony looked up slowly.
“You took my company?”
“No,” Marissa said. “You lost it when you used company funds as your mother’s private allowance.”
Eleanor grabbed the final notice.
Her expression collapsed.
“Where am I supposed to live?”
Anthony stared at her.
May you like
For years, he had promised that Marissa’s wealth would protect them both.
Now everyone waited for him to keep that promise with his own money.
