Chapter 5 - The Papers Were Served—And Their Perfect World Shattered**
Elena served the papers on a Tuesday morning.
Sharon, Jason, and Brittany were all at the hardware store, going over the weekly numbers, when the process server walked in.
I wasn’t there, but Elena told me exactly what happened.
Sharon had been in the middle of bragging to a supplier about how well the business was doing when the man handed her the envelope.
She opened it, read the first page, and went pale as a ghost.
Brittany looked over her shoulder and started screaming.
Jason just stood there, frozen, his face draining of color.
They called Walter immediately, screaming into the phone, demanding to know if he knew anything.
He told them calmly that yes, he knew.
And that he had given me the evidence.
Elena said the silence on the other end of the line was deafening.
Then Sharon started screaming so loud Elena could hear her through the phone.
She called Walter every name in the book.
Called him a traitor.
Said she would divorce him.
Said he would get nothing.
Walter just hung up.
That afternoon, Jason called me.
Over and over again.
I didn’t answer.
He left voicemail after voicemail.
First angry.
Then pleading.
Then promising to give me anything I wanted if I would just drop the case.
I deleted every single one without listening all the way through.
Sharon showed up at my apartment building that evening.
She banged on my door, yelling at the top of her lungs, calling me a thief, a liar, a gold-digger.
The neighbors called security.
She was escorted off the property, still screaming.
Brittany sent me text after text.
Threats.
Insults.
Promises that I would regret this.
I blocked her number.
They were panicking.
And they should be.
Elena had already contacted the district attorney’s office about the forgeries and the embezzlement.
The IRS had been notified about the tax fraud.
The church was opening its own investigation into the missing funds.
Their perfect little world was crumbling around them.
And they had no one to blame but themselves.
I sat in my apartment that night, drinking a glass of wine, looking out at the city lights.
For the first time in five years, I felt truly at peace.
The Millers had tried to break me.
They had tried to take everything from me.
May you like
But instead, they had only made me stronger.
And now I was going to make sure they never hurt anyone else again.
