Chapter 5 - The Collapse of Vance Legal
By 9:00 AM the following morning, news of the sudden rift between Bennett Global Health and Vance Legal sent shockwaves through Manhattan's financial district. News outlets reported a sudden withdrawal of all medical litigation contracts from Dominic’s firm, causing Vance Legal stock to plunge sixty percent in pre-market trading.
Inside his corner office on Wall Street, Dominic sat behind his glass desk, his hair disheveled, his charcoal suit jacket tossed onto a sofa. Empty coffee cups lined his desk as his phone rang continuously without pause.
The heavy wooden doors burst open, and his three senior partners marched in, their faces red with fury.
"Dominic! What the hell did you do?!" the lead partner yelled, slamming a newspaper onto the desk. "Mount Sinai, Saint Aurelia, and twelve other major hospital systems just terminated our retainer contracts! We're losing forty million dollars by noon!"
"I... I'm handling it!" Dominic rasped, his voice raw. "It's just a personal issue with Audrey—"
"Audrey?!" another partner spat out. "You mean Audrey Bennett?! The woman you told us was a penniless nobody?! Do you have any idea who her grandfather is?! He just froze our firm's credit lines!"
Natalie walked in through the side door, holding a box of her personal items from her marketing office down the hall. "Dominic, HR just revoked my corporate card! They said my department has been liquidated!"
Dominic slammed his fist onto his desk, shattering a glass paperweight. "EVERYONE SHUT UP!"
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He grabbed his phone, his hands shaking violently as he dialed Audrey's private cell number. It rang twice before going straight to a recorded message: The number you have dialed is no longer receiving calls from this caller.
Dominic dropped his head into his hands, realization sinking in like cold iron. He hadn't just lost a wife—he had destroyed his entire life's work in fifteen seconds.
