Chapter 2: Cold Audit

POV: Alessia Rowan

Gideon didn't just walk out of the bedroom after shutting the door. He turned right back around, throwing the door open so hard it hit the wall.

"You think you can just sit there and tell me to pack my things?" he screamed, his face completely red. "You think you can talk to me like I’m a dog after everything I’ve done for you?"

I didn't move an inch. I stayed seated behind my large wooden desk, my hands resting lightly on the smooth surface.

"I am not asking you, Gideon," I said, keeping my voice down, level, and steady. "I am telling you. You have eighteen minutes left."

"Are you completely out of your mind?" Gideon stomped right up to my desk, pointing a finger straight at my face. "You expect me to just leave because you had a bad dream? Because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to check banking alerts at six in the morning?"

"I didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed," I said, looking right into his eyes. "I woke up to reality. You transferred fifteen thousand dollars from my personal savings account to Nessa’s credit card while I was asleep. Without asking me. Without my permission."

"It was an emergency!" Gideon shouted, throwing his arms in the air. "I told you that already! Nessa was panicking! Her business line was going to be blocked! I took care of it because I’m the man in this house! I handle our family issues while you sleep until noon weeping over your mother!"

The sharp sting of his words used to make me burst into tears. It used to make me feel small, guilty, and ashamed for my grief. But today, it felt like cold water on hot coal. It only made me sharper.

"My mother died eighteen months ago, Gideon," I said, my voice cutting through his loud shouting like a clean blade. "And you used her death as an excuse to steal from me."

Gideon laughed, a loud, ugly sound that rattled the silent room. "Steal? Are you serious right now? You are calling your own husband a thief? Over a fifteen-thousand-dollar family transfer?"

"No," I said, turning the computer screen toward him. "Not over fifteen thousand dollars. Over four hundred and twelve thousand dollars."

Gideon froze. His arrogant laugh died right in his throat. He looked down at the bright screen glowing between us.

"What... what is that?" he asked, his voice dropping an octave as his eyes darted across the open file.

"That is the full transaction history of my primary trust account for the last three years," I said. "I didn't just lock you out of the banking app, Gideon. I pulled the full forensic records from the central bank server five minutes ago."

Gideon swallowed hard, his posture weakening slightly as he leaned over the desk to scan the lines. "This is ridiculous. You’re pulling up old numbers to make a scene—"

"Line 12," I interrupted, reading directly from the sheet. "October 14th of two years ago. Twelve thousand dollars transferred directly into a private brokerage account under your name. What was that for?"

"That was for our joint investment account!" Gideon snapped back, though his voice sounded thin. "I told you I was setting up a portfolio for our retirement!"

"It was a private account, Gideon. My name isn't on it," I said flatly. "And you liquidated it six months later to buy a gold watch and pay off your personal credit line. Line 45: Thirty-eight thousand dollars sent to a car dealership in downtown Blackridge City. You bought a luxury convertible under Nessa’s name."

"Nessa needed a car to meet high-profile clients for her boutique!" Gideon yelled, leaning closer, pressing his hands flat against the wood. "She was trying to build a career! She’s your younger sister, Alessia! You have millions sitting in a trust fund doing nothing, and you're crying over a car for your own sister?"

"My mother left that money for me," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "Not for you to play big spender. Not for you to buy my sister’s affection with my inheritance."

"I didn't buy her affection!" Gideon roared, his face flushing dark again. "I took care of her because you were too depressed to care about anyone but yourself! For a whole year after your mother passed, you sat in this room like a ghost! Who cooked the meals? Who answered the mail? Who managed the property lawyers? I did! I sacrificed my life, my freedom, and my time to keep your life from falling apart! I earned every single dollar I spent!"

"You didn't earn a cent," I said, reaching into my desk drawer. "You stole it."

"I am your husband!" he screamed, slamming his hand on the desk. "We are married! What’s yours is mine!"

"Not anymore," I replied.

I pulled out two printed documents from the tray and laid them side by side on the polished wood, right in front of his trembling hands.

"What are these?" Gideon asked, staring down at the fresh black ink on the white paper.

"The top page is a legal Separation Agreement," I explained, pointing at the header. "It states that you relinquish all claims to the Oak Ridge Estate, all claims to the Rowan Family Trust, and all rights to any shared assets. You leave with your personal clothes and nothing else."

Gideon blinked in utter shock, his mouth opening and closing before he let out a bitter, disbelieving gasp. "And if I don't sign this garbage?"

"Then you sign the bottom page," I said calmly.

Gideon looked down at the second sheet. His eyes caught the bold lettering at the top: NOTICE OF FORMAL CORPORATE & PERSONAL AUDIT – STATE FINANCIAL CRIMES BOARD.

His breath caught in his throat. The angry color drained from his face so fast he looked like he was about to pass out.

"Are you... are you insane?" he whispered, his hands trembling as he reached out, touching the edge of the paper with shaking fingertips. "An audit? A state financial board audit?"

"My private lawyer is standing by on my phone right now," I told him, tapping the glass screen of my phone resting beside the documents. "At exactly eight-thirty AM, if these separation papers are not signed and scanned into the system, my lawyer will file this audit request directly with the state prosecutor's office."

"Alessia... stop," Gideon stammered, his voice losing all its anger, replaced by pure, raw panic. He dropped his hands to his sides and stared at me like I was a stranger. "You can't do this. You know what happens if they look into those transfers! They’ll flag every single one of them as unauthorized asset conversion! They’ll freeze my personal cards! They could... they could file criminal charges against me!"

"They will file criminal charges," I corrected him smoothly. "Grand larceny and financial fraud carry a minimum sentence of eight years in state prison."

"Eight years?!" Gideon yelled, his voice cracking violently. "You would put your own husband in prison over money?!"

"You put me through hell for three years while you laughed behind my back," I said, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms. "Eight years in a clean cell sounds like a very generous trade."

"Alessia, please!" Gideon suddenly dropped down, hitting his knees hard against the wooden floor right beside my chair. He reached out frantically, grabbing the edge of my desk, his face pale and wet with sudden tears. "Please! Don't do this to me! I swear to God I’ll pay it back! I’ll get a loan! I’ll sell the convertible! I’ll make Nessa give back every single dollar she took!"

"Nessa didn't take it," I said softly, looking down at his pathetic, groveling posture. "You gave it to her. You gave her my mother’s ring, too, didn't you?"

Gideon’s jaw dropped. His left hand jerked back, instinctively hiding behind his thigh. "How... how do you know about the ring?"

"Because I know who you are now, Gideon," I said, feeling a strange, deep sense of total liberation washing over my chest.

For three years, this man had controlled my life. He had made me doubt my own mind, my own value, and my own family. He had made me feel weak, crazy, and useless while he quietly drained my life blood to build a life with my sister. Watching him now, kneeling on the floor, shivering in terror because his comfortable lie was tearing apart at the seams—it felt like taking my first real breath of clean air in years.

"Sign the separation papers," I said, sliding a black ink pen across the desk until it bumped against his knee. "Sign them, pack your bag, and get out of my house before six-twenty."

Gideon stared at the black pen resting against his leg. His chest heaved up and down in shallow, panicked breaths.

"If... if I sign," he stammered, looking up at me with wide, desperate eyes, "you won't call the lawyer? You won't send the audit to the state board?"

"If you sign right now, leave this property, and never speak to me again, the audit stays in this drawer," I said. "If you refuse, or if you waste another minute of my time, I hit the send button on my laptop right now."

Gideon scrambled up from his knees, his hands shaking violently as he snatched the black pen off the floor. He pulled the Separation Agreement closer to him, his teeth digging into his bottom lip so hard a tiny drop of blood appeared.

"You're heartless, Alessia," he muttered, his voice trembling with a mix of rage and terror. "You're a cold, unfeeling monster. Your mother would be ashamed of what you’ve become."

"My mother died protecting what was mine," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Something I am finally learning to do."

Gideon pressed the tip of the pen against the signature line at the bottom of the page. His hand was shaking so badly the pen tip rattled against the paper, leaving tiny black specks of ink near the line.

He took a deep breath, forcing his fingers to grip the pen tighter. He began to draw the first letter of his name.

G...

A loud, piercing ringtone suddenly shattered the heavy silence in the office.

Gideon’s hand jerked violently, drawing a long, messy black line right across the entire signature block.

The sound came from my phone, lying flat on the desk right between us. The screen lit up in bright, pulsing white light, vibrating hard against the polished wood.

Gideon froze, the pen still pressed against the paper. He looked up slowly, his wide, bloodshot eyes fixing on the screen.

The caller ID flashed in big, dark letters across the display:

NESSA……

The phone kept ringing, its sharp digital tone bouncing off the high walls of the silent room.

Gideon swallowed hard, his throat making a loud clicking sound as he stared at the name. A strange, sudden flash of desperate hope flickered across his pale face. He looked from the phone up to my face, his breath catching in his chest.

I didn't reach for the phone immediately. I sat perfectly still, watching the screen light up again and again, feeling the cold weight of the moment pulling tight around us.