Chapter 13: The Severance
The divorce negotiations took exactly fourteen minutes.
Liam was brought into the maximum-security visitation room wearing shackles around his wrists and ankles. He looked twenty years older. He hadn't shaved, there were dark circles under his hollow eyes, and the arrogant sneer was completely gone.
He sat across from me and Arthur, separated by a thick pane of reinforced glass. His public defender, an overworked man who looked like he hadn't slept in three days, sat beside him.
"Let's make this simple," Arthur began, sliding a thick document through the narrow slot at the bottom of the glass. "This is a full concession of the divorce. You receive zero alimony, zero division of assets, and you assume all remaining debts associated with your name."
"I won't sign it," Liam rasped, his voice shaking. He looked at me, pressing his shackled hands against the glass. "Charlotte, please. I know I messed up. I know I did a terrible thing. But I'm Leo's father. You can't take my son away from me."
"You are not a father," I said, my voice completely devoid of sympathy. "A father protects his child. You stole from his medical fund and watched his mother drown to pay for a condo."
I slid a second, single-page document through the slot.
"That is a voluntary termination of parental rights," I stated.
Liam stared at the paper like it was radioactive. "I'm not signing that. Never. I have rights."
Arthur leaned into the microphone. "Liam, the federal prosecutor has offered a plea deal. If you plead guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, they will recommend a four-year sentence. However, if you fight this divorce or the custody arrangement, my firm will personally fund a private civil prosecution for embezzlement and reckless endangerment that will run concurrently with your criminal trial. I will bury you in so much litigation that you will never see the outside of a cell before your son graduates college."
The public defender leaned over, whispering frantically into Liam's ear, practically begging him to take the deal. He knew they had absolutely no leverage.
Liam looked at me, tears spilling over his cheeks, finally realizing the absolute totality of his defeat.
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"You're a monster," Liam whispered, picking up the pen with trembling, shackled hands.
"No, Liam," I said, watching him sign away his rights to my son. "I'm a mother. There's a difference."
