Chapter 4

Arden pushed open the heavy glass doors of the sanatorium's finance office.

She walked straight to the director's desk and slammed the lawyer's letter down onto the polished wood.

"Who gave you the authority to stop my mother's medication when there is an active legal dispute over the trust?" she demanded, her voice echoing sharply in the quiet room.

The finance director jumped in his seat.

He quickly grabbed his mouse and clicked through his computer system, pulling up the billing records and bank notices.

He turned the monitor around so Arden could see the screen.

"Mrs. Monroe, it wasn't the Monroe Group. The trust bank initiated an annual Anti-Money Laundering compliance review."

He pointed to a red flag on the screen.

"Because the trust pays for large, cross-border medical equipment purchases from Europe, the automated system flagged it. The funds are just delayed, not canceled."

Arden stared at the official bank letterhead on the screen.

A loud, high-pitched ringing started in her ears.

Federico didn't do it.

He hadn't used her mother's life as a bargaining chip to force the divorce. She had completely misunderstood him.

But the relief was instantly swallowed by a heavy, suffocating bitterness.

Their marriage was so broken, so devoid of basic communication, that they automatically assumed the absolute worst of each other.

"I understand it's a bank delay," the director said apologetically, "but our policy is strict. We cannot administer the experimental drugs without payment upfront. She needs the dose today."

Arden clenched her jaw so hard her teeth ached.

She opened her designer purse and pulled out every credit card she owned, along with her personal savings debit card.

She took a deep breath. "Run them. All of them. Empty my accounts."

She watched the machine print out the long receipts, draining the money she had saved over the last four years.

It physically stung to see her balance hit zero, but a strange, weightless sense of freedom washed over her. She was no longer tied to his money.

Leaving the sanatorium, her phone rang. It was Zara, her best friend and business partner.

Arden hailed a cab and rushed straight to their art studio in SoHo.

She pushed open the studio door and found Zara lying on the vintage sofa, pale and clutching her stomach, looking exactly as awful as her text messages had warned.

Zara weakly handed Arden a hospital ultrasound printout.

"I'm pregnant," Zara whispered, tears in her eyes. "I've been fighting the bleeding for weeks, but my body finally gave out. The doctor put me on strict bed rest starting today."

Arden dropped to her knees, hugging her friend tightly.

"I've got you. I'll take over everything. Just rest."

Zara pointed a shaky finger at a massive stack of folders on the coffee table.

"The most urgent one is the Monroe Group's art curation project for their new cultural tourism sector. The pitch is tomorrow."

Hearing the name Monroe made Arden's fingers twitch.

She forced her hands to relax.

She opened the proposal. The profit margin on this contract was massive. It would also put their small studio on the map in the high-end art world.

She had exactly zero dollars to her name right now. To pay for her mother's future medical bills and secure her own independence, she had to win this contract.

Zara looked at her with deep concern. "Are you really ready to walk into his building and face him right now?"

Arden closed the folder. She looked Zara dead in the eye.

"I am not his wife anymore. I am the owner of this studio."

Arden stayed at the studio all night. She drank three pots of black coffee, tearing apart Zara's original proposal and injecting her own aggressive, high-value art curation strategies into the business model.

The next morning, Arden changed into a sharp, tailored black suit. She applied a bold red lipstick to hide the exhaustion washing out her face.

She grabbed the finalized proposal and took a cab to the Monroe Group headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.

Standing outside the massive revolving doors of the skyscraper, Arden took a deep breath of the freezing morning air, letting it fill her lungs.

She walked into the grand marble lobby, her high heels clicking loudly, projecting absolute confidence.

The receptionist at the front desk smiled warmly. "Good morning, Mrs. Monroe-"

"Arden Mitchell," Arden interrupted smoothly, her tone polite but icy. "I am here as the vendor representative for the 10 AM project meeting."

She turned away from the desk and walked toward the designated visitor elevators, pressing the button for the executive floor, ready to walk into the fire.