Chapter 7
I pack up and check into a downtown hotel.
Derek gets three days to decide.
I don’t call him or sit around stressing. Instead, I sign up for a flower arranging class and keep busy with lessons, books, and calls with my lawyer.
Ms. Thompson loves my approach: “Jessica, you’re the sharpest client I’ve ever had. Using his own tactics against him? We can’t lose this one.”
I just smile.
It’s not about being smart-it’s about surviving.
When you’re pushed off a cliff, you either crash or learn to fly.
Day three, Derek finally calls.
His voice sounds rough, beaten down. That smug attitude is completely gone.
‘We should talk. Coffee shop by your hotel.”
He’s already there when I arrive, looking like hell. Stubble, messy hair, dark circles-three days have destroyed him.
My folder sits in front of him, covered in red pen marks.
‘I went through everything,” he starts, trying to sound professional again. “Your argument’s creative, but there are holes. Judges might not buy the whole ‘paid services’ angle…”
I cut him off.
‘Save it, Derek. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t terrified of losing.”
pause, watching his face. “Or maybe you just can’t afford to lose.”
Because once this hits court, his career’s over. An elite lawyer who micromanaged his own marriage, then got destroyed by his housewife using his own contracts? He’d be a laughingstock.
His reputation, his career-gone.
That’s where it really hurts.
Derek’s mouth becomes a thin line.
16:11
I’m on the Operating Table and You Venmo Request HALF?! Die Mad. Bro!
10.6%
After a long silence, he slumps back like someone let all the air out of him.
“What do you want from me?”
“Same terms as before.”
“The entire house? Come on, Jess.” He tries bargaining. “I’ll give you fifty grand. Final offer.”
I actually laugh.
“You still don’t get it. This isn’t charity-it’s wages you owe me.”
His face turns red, but before he can blow up, I slide another document across the table.
“Actually, I brought you a little present.”
Derek stares at the cover suspiciously.
Legal Opinion: Potential Coercion and Unconscionable Contract Formation.
His hand shakes slightly.
My voice goes ice-cold:
“Remember that contract you shoved in my face at the hospital? Right after I lost our baby, making me pay for my own medical bills while you charged me by the hour?”
He won’t look at me now.
“So I had my lawyer research this. Turns out, when someone’s in extreme emotional distress-like after a miscarriage—and their spouse, who happens to be a lawyer, exploits that vulnerability to force them into an unfair agreement? That’s textbook coercion.”
‘Which makes that contract voidable. And when a lawyer abuses their professional position to manipulate their vulnerable spouse? That’s an ethics violation I can report to the state bar.”
I lean in closer, dropping my voice to a whisper:
‘Derek, what happens when your clients, your competition, and the disciplinary board find out you exploited your wife right after she lost your child? Think your license survives that scandal?”
Clink.
His spoon hits the floor.
All the color drains from Derek’s face.
He collapses back in his chair like a broken puppet, staring at nothing.
16:11
I’m on the Operating Table and You Venmo Request UAL COL Die Mad Prol
10001
This is my nuclear option, and he knows it.
Everything else threatened his wallet.
This destroys his entire life.
His career, his reputation, his carefully built world-all of it crumbles because of one piece of paper.
16:11
I’m on the Operating Table and You Venmo-Request HALF?! Die Mad Brol
