Chapter 1 - The Final Night
I did not pack my bags right away.
Instead, I waited until the house was completely quiet.
The clock on the wall struck midnight as a heavy rain began to fall outside.
Zachary had fallen asleep on the leather couch with his phone resting on his chest.
The screen lit up with another notification from his toxic family group chat.
I carefully walked past him and headed into his private home office.
I only wanted to find my passport and Chloe’s birth certificate in the safe.
But as I pulled the documents out, a thick blue folder caught my eye.
My full name was written across the front cover in bold red letters.
I opened it and felt the warm blood drain completely from my face.
It was a drafted custody agreement dated three entire months ago.
Zachary was already planning to divorce me and falsely claim I was mentally unstable.
He wanted to take full legal custody of Chloe and leave me with absolutely nothing.
This entire time, he had been manipulating me into looking like the unstable villain.
The chicken drumstick incident was just another calculated piece of his sick game.
I grabbed the folder and marched angrily back into the living room.
I shook his shoulder forcefully until his eyes fluttered open.
He groaned in annoyance and asked what my problem was this time.
I tossed the blue folder directly onto his lap.
His smug expression vanished the second he saw the confidential documents.
He scrambled to his feet and desperately tried to snatch the papers back.
I stepped out of his reach and pulled my phone from my pocket.
I told him I had already taken clear pictures of every single page.
Zachary sneered and told me no judge would ever believe a hysterical woman.
He warned me that if I walked out that door, I would never see a single dime of his money.
I looked him dead in the eye and smiled without a trace of fear.
I told him I did not want his money because I was going to take his freedom instead.
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Suddenly, my phone buzzed with an incoming text from an unknown number.
The anonymous message contained an audio file of Zachary hiring a private investigator to drug my daily medication.
