Only cautious emails, secure uploads, and records placed where Gavin could no longer quietly delete them.
The next morning, Madison arrived at my office.
My receptionist called at 9:40.
“There’s a young woman in the lobby demanding to see you.”
“Did she give you a name?”
“Madison Cole.”
I looked through the window toward the Chicago River.
“Send her in.”
Madison entered wearing a silk trench coat purchased on Gavin’s corporate card three weeks earlier.
Oversized sunglasses hid most of her face until she reached my desk.
She removed them slowly and sat without waiting for permission.
“I want to handle this like adults,” she said.
“That would be new.”
Her lips tightened.
“Gavin is exhausted. You have made everything unnecessarily hostile.”
“I received a text ending my marriage.”
“He was trying to avoid drama.”
“By sending it from a jewelry store?”
Color rose along her neck.
“That isn’t why I came.”
She opened her handbag and removed a sheet of cream stationery.
A handwritten list covered the page.
The velvet sectional.
The Italian dining table.
The abstract painting in the foyer.
The bedroom furniture.
“You made an inventory of my home?”
“Gavin told me which pieces he intends to keep.”
“For where?”
“The penthouse.”
I waited.
Madison interpreted my silence as permission to continue.
“He thinks it would be better if you moved out by the end of the month. Beginning again somewhere new might help you heal. The apartment has become part of his professional image.”
I stared at her for several seconds.
“You believe Gavin owns the penthouse.”
“He said he bought it after his first major funding round.”
“Northline has never completed a funding round.”
She laughed once.
“You expect me to believe that?”
I opened the bottom drawer of my desk and removed the consolidated financial report Rebecca had prepared.
I placed it over Madison’s furniture list.
“Read the highlighted sections.”
She picked up the report.
At first, her expression remained dismissive.
Then she reached Northline’s revenue history.
Zero independent operating revenue.
Her eyes moved to Gavin’s personal balance sheet.
The luxury SUV was leased.
The cards belonged to Everly Capital.
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