He Paid Half My Mother’s Surgery, Now I Own Half His Company Chapter 10
The divorce proceedings went quickly.
The court clerk asked whether both parties were
proceeding with the dissolution voluntarily.
“I do,” I answered.
Antony stayed silent for several seconds before
saying, “I do.”
Five years of marriage, reduced to a few thin
sheets of paper.
Outside the courthouse, Antony called my name.
“Jessie.”
I turned toward him. He held a jewelry box in his
hand. Inside sat the gold bangle my mother had
given me.
“I tracked it down and bought it back from the
resale shop. This belongs to you.”
I didn’t take it. “Selling that bangle was my own
decision. What Mom gave me was never just about the gold.”
Antony’s fingers tightened around the box. “What
about us… going forward?”
I cut him off. “There is no ‘us‘. Mr. Fleming, from
now on we only discuss business.”
I turned and walked away.
Mom waited for me on the steps below. Her
health had improved drastically. She had even
signed up for painting classes at the Southton
Senior Center, twice a week.
Spotting me, she held up her thermos. “Jessie,
have some water.”
I walked down the stone steps and took the bottle.
Mom glanced over at Antony. “I almost wish I
could slap him.”
I blinked in surprise. “Mom, I never thought I would
hear you say something like that.”
She looped her arm through mine, breaking into a
bright smile. “Let’s go home.”
“Okay.”
One month after the divorce was finalized,
Fleming Group’s cash flow collapsed. Aventis Innovations was the first asset to go into liquidation.
Shortly after, two flagship projects ground to a halt. Stock prices kept tumbling.
Antony, who once controlled careers with a single word, was now forced to sit through endless investor pitches. But no investor wanted to prop up a company that had lost its core talent base.
Some people asked if I felt triumphant. I thought it over and nodded. “It does feel satisfying. I capitalized on the opportunities he threw away.”
Fleming Group’s fate was Antony’s own doing. He used to believe employees were easily replaceable. He convinced himself Jessie would be nothing without him. In the end, every irreplaceable person had been pushed out by his
own hand.
That same year, our Southton regional branch turned profitable. Linda was promoted to Regional Director. Henry scraped together a down payment on an apartment and moved his wife and baby to
the city.
At our team celebration, Linda raised her glass
toward me. “Back at Aventis Innovations, when I
stood up for you? I was absolutely terrified. I had a mortgage hanging over my head. I truly feared Mr.
Fleming would fire me on the spot.”
I clinked my glass against hers. “But now, we get
to call all the shots ourselves. Let’s drink to us.”
The road to finding yourself is always painful. But each of us holds the courage to rebuild our lives.