The Ex-Wife's Deal with the Devil

~Arlo Frantz~

The tinted window of my car kept me invisible, the window rolled down just enough for me to hear the furious voices of Liam Tate's worshipers slithering inside.

"Evil bitch!" one screamed.

"Go die!" another one spat.

Their words kept piling onto one another as if she was not a living person, but a carcass meant for public display.

I leaned back on my leather chair, puffing out the smoke from my cigar glowing faintly.

From here, I could see her clearly.

She was walking past the enraged crowd in a hurry, arms wrapped around her small body as if hugging herself, the comfort she needed amidst the chaos.

Right now, she was fragile, trembling. As one would expect from a woman who devoted herself to her husband only to get betrayed and stripped bare from everything.

"The judge has given the final verdict today," I hear Pierce's voice from the other side of the seat, right across from me. "Kerri Coleman's assets will be handed to her ex-husband."

"All of it?" I ask, still keeping my gaze on her. I could see the tears from her eyes threatening to spill, but she blinked them back.

"Even her car," Pierce added, scrolling through his phone and reading what I presume is another degrading article written about her.

I guess darling Kerri will be riding the bus from now on.

"Sir, are we not going to intervene? The crowd is becoming hostile-"

"No," I cut him off.

Not yet.

Despite the rage burning in my chest.

I wanted nothing more but step out of this car and silence the crowd, painting the courthouse red with their blood.

But I shouldn't step in, no, not yet.

This is her punishment. Her crucifixion.

She must remember how loathsome the feeling is.

Betrayed, broken and alone.

Let this nightmarish experience burn into her soul and only when the world had ripped her apart would she finally look at me.

***

"Sir, Miss Kerri was turned away by her family. They refuse to accept her into their house," Pierce leaned in to report his findings to me after tailing her.

Her family discarded her? How predictable.

It was obvious that they wouldn't want anything to do with their daughter, especially when the media had already destroyed her name.

People are weak when reputation is on the line. Blood means nothing when shame has become too heavy.

That is something I have learned in my line of work.

I set my whiskey to the side and glanced out the window, relishing the view of the city from my high-rise building.

"And where is she now?" My tone was sharp.

No matter how much I look forward to her hellish encounters with her ex-husband's fans, I fear the possibility that they might hurt her so I had people following her everywhere she goes.

"She's currently staying with her friend, Alina Greene."

I stopped to think. Most likely she's going to hide there until the issue dies.

If that happens, how is she going to see what I prepared for her all over the city?

"Leak the address," I leaned back on my swivel chair, clasping my hands together.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Pierce's confused expression, though it was only for a second.

"To the media, sir?"

"The most aggressive ones," I added, meeting his gaze.

Silence enveloped my dimmed office.

Pierce never questioned me before, even when I asked him to shoot a person point-blank, yet now he's hesitating.

"But sir, she would be safer with her friend-"

"I want her out of there," I said, deliberately slowing each word. "No roof and no place to hide."

Pierce's eyes narrowed.

If only he wasn't my right-hand man, and someone I consider a close ally, then I would have shot him already for questioning my orders.

"I want her to see every goddamn corner of this city that is plastered with her ex-husband's face. I want her to see his triumph, his betrayal immortalized on glowing screens." I shift my gaze out the window to see the city that is mostly covered with Liam Tate's face.

Every step she would take, every street she turned to, her cheating ex-husband would be there, reminding her of what she had lost.

She will see all the billboards, posters, and advertisements... that I paid for.

My lips curved into a smile.

"Understood," Pierce finally spoke after a long pause.

He had known me for a long time to know that this was not cruelty, it was precision, it was strategy.

Kerri had to be pushed further, cornered until there was nowhere left to turn.

Every door slammed in her face only opened one closer to mine.

I am certain that once despair had already seeped into her bones, when she had been driven into a corner, and when she had begun falling faster, I would be at the bottom with open arms.

And now, a few days later, I have her here in my office.

She would have no choice but to accept my deal.

For her to finally be mine... marriage.

"I refuse,"

Kerri shut down my proposal.

For the first time in so many years, I felt my confidence crack. I sat perfectly still, using enough strength to control my expression while she sat across from me with a fiery gaze.

Right now, she was the complete opposite of the woman I have seen trembling out in the streets.

She was different tonight.

She was brave and bold that, for a quick split second, I caught a glimpse of her when she was younger, with that same expression.

I thought I wouldn't see this version of her anymore.

The woman I have loved.

The part of her that was buried from marrying Liam Tate, reshaping her into a submissive person.

My chest tightened, and my pulse drummed against my ears from excitement, knowing that she was still the same.

And it was because of me.

I smiled, "...I know you'll come back." I shot a glance at Pierce standing at the corner, giving him a subtle sign to play a recording of a radio show in his car when he escorts her.

Something that I believe would give her that one last push to start fighting for herself and bring down those who hurt her.

And come back she did.

The echo of her footsteps made me smile wider.

She burst through the door like a whirlwind, chest rising and falling with fury.

"Fine!"

Her furious voice echoed in my vast and dark office, but my smile just kept growing wider and wider.

"I will marry you."

Good girl.