Chapter 5: Two Million Dollars for Pierce

Liam's POV

I started laughing until it broke into a hacking, lung-shredding cough. My chest felt like it was being crushed under a boulder, the pain spreading through me with every heartbeat. I doubled over, choking back a sob that got stuck in my throat.

So it wasn't that she didn't have the money. She'd been funneling it all to Pierce, the man who was supposedly struggling to get by.

I sat there staring at that deposit notification for 100 thousand dollars, and the pain was enough to hollow me out from the inside. If Gwen had given me even a tenth of that, could Andy have gone to the best private hospital? Could he have had a fighting chance?

I stood up and shook the HR manager's hand. "Thank you."

When I walked out of the office, the whispers from Gwen's coworkers washed over me like a tide.

"Look, that's Gwen Dalton's husband."

"I heard she's so wrapped up in that Pierce guy she didn't even care that her own son died?"

"I always wondered how that single dad pulled it off, cruising up to the office in a luxury car every day. Turns out he's our dear Ms. Dalton's little charity case."

One coworker took pity on me and lowered her voice. "Mr. Morrison, you have no idea, but Pierce is a joke around here. He blows more money in a month than our director makes. Just yesterday he bought himself a new watch and said it was a 'consolation prize' from Gwen."

Another coworker let out a bitter laugh. "Single dad with a hard life? That man lives more lavishly than anyone I know. He goes out for thousand-dollar prix fixe lunches every day and gets chauffeured around in luxury cars. He's not here to work. He's here to enjoy the lifestyle Gwen bankrolls for him."

My heart seized, and I nearly lost my footing.

"The most disgusting part," the first woman continued, getting angrier as she went, "is that every time monthly reviews come around, Pierce's proposals are either ripped off the internet or ghostwritten by interns.

"Gwen forces people on our team to list their names under his on the proposal so it looks like 'team collaboration'. The performance bonuses that should've gone to us end up in his pocket."

"Exactly. Last month's big project? Murray pulled three all-nighters on it, and Pierce's name ended up first on the credits. Gwen even warned us not to say anything because Pierce was going through a rough patch and said we should cut him some slack."

Every word landed like a slap across my face.

I thought about last winter and how I'd held Andy through a 104-degree fever in our cramped rental, the two of us shivering under two layers of blankets because I was trying to save on heating.

I thought about how I'd eaten nothing but plain bread for three days straight to stretch what little Gwen gave us, until I collapsed at the entrance to the subway station.

I braced myself against the wall, my knuckles white.

"Excuse me," I said quietly and pushed through the crowd blocking my path.

I walked out of the building into blinding sunlight, but none of it touched me. Then I went straight to the cab line and headed for the courthouse.

The filing hall was packed, but my mind had never been clearer.

"Sir, I'm filing for divorce." I handed over the paperwork, my voice steady.

"This is evidence of asset transfers. These are chat logs proving my wife is cheating. And these are records of marital assets being gifted to a third party."

I laid the evidence out piece by piece, from screenshots of the AI-generated replies to luxury purchases Pierce had posted on social media, testimonies from Gwen's coworkers, and the full ledger of her so-called charity spending.

"Under family law, one spouse can't unilaterally give away shared marital assets to a third party. Those transfers are recoverable." I looked the clerk in the eye.

"Over the past three years, Gwen has transferred and spent over two million dollars on Pierce Donovan. I'm requesting full recovery of every cent."

The clerk flipped through the documents, frowning. "Mr. Morrison, are you sure you want to add Mr. Donovan as a co-defendant? This could get very difficult."

"Absolutely." I gritted my teeth, my eyes rimmed with red.

"Every gift she bought him, every meal, every trip, all of it came from money that belonged to me and my son. If she won't let go of that man, then I'll make sure she walks away with nothing."

By the time I left the courthouse, I already had the case acceptance notice in hand. I was going to collect on every last cent of this debt and then some.