"By the time my husband came home on Christmas morning, my wedding ring was lying beneath the tree, my hospital bag was gone, and the nursery door was standing wide open. Roman had spent years making half of Chicago afraid of him—but on Christmas Eve, while he was holding another woman downtown, his eight-and-a-half-months-pregnant wife finally became the one person he could no longer control. / Chapter 6 / 10

Chapter 6 - The Cornered WolfBy noon, Roman Carter’s controlled universe had completely imploded.

After discovering that his corporate accounts were frozen, his personal credit cards were flagged, and his primary real estate holdings were tied up in emergency federal receivership, Roman rushed downtown to Vance & Sterling Forensic Accounting, expecting to scream some sense into my cousin.

Instead, when he stormed through the glass double doors of the twelfth floor, he was met not by Marcus, but by two armed federal marshals and a court-appointed receiver holding an eviction notice for his private downtown office suite.

“Mr. Roman Carter?” the lead marshal asked calmly, stepping directly into his path.

“Out of my way,” Roman snarled, trying to shove past them toward Marcus’s private office. “I demand to speak to the managing partner immediately! This is an illegal corporate seizure!”

“Mr. Carter, you are being served with a federal restraining order and a mandatory asset-disclosure subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois,” the marshal stated crisply, handing him a thick packet of legal documents. “Failure to comply with these asset disclosures within twenty-four hours will result in immediate incarceration for contempt of court.”

Roman looked down at the documents, his face turning an alarming shade of pale ash. The bold heading across the top read: United States District Court vs. Roman Carter & Associated Shell Entities.

“Where is my wife?” Roman demanded, his voice cracking with rising panic as reality finally crashed down around him. “Where is Savannah?”

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“If you are referring to Mrs. Savannah Carter, primary petitioner and majority trustee of the estate holdings,” the marshal replied coldly, “she is currently unavailable. Now step back, sir, or you will be restrained.”

Defeated, humiliated, and utterly stripped of his corporate armor, Roman stumbled backward out of the building. He stood on the freezing downtown sidewalk, his expensive wool coat flapping in the bitter wind, realizing that his mistress had already blocked his number the moment his credit cards bounced, and his wife had vanished into thin air, taking his entire empire with her.