I said nothing. Slowly, I removed my coat, revealing the long scars carved across my body. The courtroom fell silent. Then I whispered, “This is no longer a divorce trial. It’s the trial for every dark secret you thought would stay buried forever.” The courtroom was silent until my husband laughed. Then every eye turned to me, waiting to see a broken woman collapse.
Julian Vance stood beside his mistress like a king admiring the ruins of a conquered city. Nora wore white, as if she had not spent the last two years sleeping in my bed, signing my name on hotel receipts, and whispering into my husband’s ear that I was “too weak to fight back.”
“The company, the house, the cars,” Julian said, smoothing his expensive silk tie, “they’re mine now. You’ll starve in the street.”
A few people gasped. His lawyer did not stop him. He only smiled, because on paper, Julian had already won.
Vance Medical Technologies was in his name. The mansion was in his name. The accounts had been entirely drained three days before I filed for divorce. Every document showed the exact same thing: I had absolutely nothing.
I sat at the plaintiff’s table in a simple gray coat, hands folded, face entirely calm. Julian hated that calm. He had spent years trying to break it.
“Say something, Iris,” he said softly. “Beg, maybe.”
