Chapter 3: The Coldest Winter
The fallout was swift and brutal. Claire didn't need to yell; she simply withdrew her support. Without the liquid assets from the trust, the lifestyle Mark had cultivated collapsed like a house of cards. His credit cards were declined at the luxury hotel lobby where he and Vanessa had moved. His car—a leased Ferrari—was repossessed in the middle of the night.
Vanessa, realizing that the "empire" was an illusion, started to change. She stopped wearing crimson and started wearing fear. She began to pack her bags, eyeing the last of the expensive jewelry on the dresser.
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"You promised me a life of luxury, Mark," she hissed, her voice devoid of the fake sweetness from the party. "You said you owned everything."
"I do!" Mark roared, pacing their cramped, temporary apartment. He was clutching his phone, desperately trying to log into the accounts that had made him feel like a king, only to find himself locked out of his own life.
