I stood up, straightened my shoulders, and looked him directly in the eye. The obedient-wife act was over. “I know exactly what I did, Gleb,” I said.
“You’re a fraud who used our marriage as cover for laundering dirty money. You planned to throw me out with nothing and marry Dorokhov’s daughter for a profitable merger. For eight years, you controlled every move I made and every dollar I spent. You turned me into a prisoner in a very expensive cage.”
“And do you know your biggest mistake? You underestimated me.” I looked around the room at all of them.
“All of you did. You decided I was a foolish housewife who wasn’t worthy of the great Severtsev name. Well, now we’ll all get to see what’s left of that greatness after the state takes everything bought with stolen money.” At that moment, the courtroom doors opened and Major Larin walked in with two officers.
“Gleb Igorevich Severtsev, you are under arrest on suspicion of money laundering and related financial crimes. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in court.”
The click of handcuffs on the wrists of the man who had spent eight years acting like he owned my life sounded better than music. He looked at me with the stunned expression of someone seeing a stranger. In a way, he was.
Regina bolted from the courtroom, yanking off the necklace as she went, no doubt headed for her father and his lawyers. Eleanor gripped her handbag so tightly her knuckles turned white. Victor, builder of the Severtsev empire, looked like a man watching his house burn down from the lawn.
“Mrs. Severtseva,” the judge said to me, “in light of your substantial cooperation in the exposure of serious financial crimes, this court grants the dissolution of marriage in your favor. All jointly held property acquired through lawful income prior to the defendant’s criminal conduct shall remain subject to your legal claim”…
