Chapter 340
“Before you sign,” Dallas said, reaching into his coat pocket, “I have one condition.”
He pulled out a small, rectangular velvet box and slid it across the metal table.
“Take this.”
Eliza stared at the box. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
Eliza’s fingers brushed the velvet, the texture soft against her cold skin. She hesitated, then flipped the lid open.
The late afternoon sun caught the stone, fracturing into a thousand points of pink light.
It was a necklace. A teardrop pink diamond, surrounded by a halo of smaller white diamonds, suspended on a delicate platinum chain.
𝖳𝗵𝖾 𝘮𝗼ѕ𝘁 p𝗼p𝘶𝗅ar ո𝘰vе𝘭𝗌 𝗼n 𝗀а𝘭nov𝖾l𝘀.соm
Eliza gasped. She knew this necklace. It was the Solomon Rose — her mother’s favorite piece, a legendary gem whispered about in family stories. It had been sold at auction the day the bankruptcy was declared, lost to the vaults of some anonymous collector.
“You found it,” she whispered, her voice trembling. She looked up at him, her defenses momentarily crumbling. “Dallas — how? This has been missing for five years.”
For a second, she saw something shift behind his sunglasses. A tightening of his mouth. A hesitation.
Then he crushed it.
“It wasn’t hard,” Dallas said, his voice bored. “I bought the collector’s entire estate. Yvonne saw it in the inventory. She tried it on.”
Eliza felt as though she had been punched in the gut. “Yvonne?”
“Yeah,” Dallas shrugged — a stiff, painful movement. “She said it would just get caught on her rifle strap. Too impractical. She prefers something she can actually use. So I figured you might as well have it. Consider it a parting gift. Severance pay.”
The air left the garden.
Eliza looked down at the diamond. A moment ago, it had been a miracle. Now it was a reject — a scrap from his mistress’s table.
She snapped the box shut. The sound was loud in the quiet garden.
“Severance pay,” she repeated. “Is that what I was? An employee?”
“A contract,” Dallas corrected. “And the contract is expired.”
Eliza grabbed the pen and pulled the asset-release waiver toward her.
She flipped to the financial section. Alimony: $50 million lump sum. Real Estate: The Penthouse. Stocks: 5% of S&D non-voting shares.
It was a fortune. Enough to live like a queen for ten lifetimes.
Eliza uncapped the pen. She didn’t sign the bottom.
She drew a thick, dark line through the alimony clause. She crossed out the real estate. She slashed through the stocks.
“Ma’am!” Weston stepped forward, his eyes wide. “What are you doing? That’s — that’s billions.”
“I don’t want it,” Eliza said, her voice shaking with rage. “I am striking every financial clause. I am leaving this marriage with exactly what I came in with. Nothing.” Her mind screamed at her — this is a mistake, you need those resources to fight him — but her pride was a wildfire, burning away all logic. “I will not take a single cent from you, Dallas Koch. I will not let you buy your conscience clean.”
.
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