Magnificent Magnus Mace

“Sir, you can't go in there…”

Magnus pushed the doors open ignoring the receptionist shouting behind him. He still wore his white medical coat with a stethoscope draped around his neck. His chest heaved as he walked into the center of the office.

He slapped the document in his hand down onto the desk.

"A divorce?" Magnus asked.

Christina Kensington sat in her chair and finished typing an email on her laptop. She pressed the enter key and finally looked up. 

"The papers are standard." Christina said flatly. "You only need to sign the bottom of page four. The legal team has already notarized the rest."

Magnus stared at the woman he had married three years ago. She wore a tailored designer suit and expensive diamond earrings. She looked nothing like the desperate girl who once cried in his tiny apartment.

"We have been married for three years." Magnus gripped the edge of the desk. "Kensington Corporation goes public next week. And you serve me with divorce papers via a courier at the public clinic?"

"The timing is deliberate." Christina leaned back in her chair. "My status is changing. My network is changing. We are entering the elite circles of this city. You are a modest doctor working in a rundown public hospital. You do not fit into the future I am building."

Magnus blinked. 

"I do not fit?." Magnus repeated the words slowly. "I worked ninety hour weeks at the clinic to pay your early debts. I sold my car so you could afford the deposit on this office building. I ate instant noodles for a year so you could buy clothes for your investor meetings."

"And I am grateful for your early assistance." Christina said without a shred of guilt. "You were an adequate partner for that phase of my life. But I have outgrown you. You are now a liability I can no longer carry."

"A liability." Magnus let out a dry laugh. "You called me your savior when the banks threatened to repossess your family home."

"That was the past." Christina picked up her gold pen. "The media will look into my background when the public offering launches. I cannot have them finding out my husband earns a pathetic public salary. The shareholders demand a certain image. You ruin that image."

Magnus felt his stomach twist. He had given her his youth, his health, his own medical specialization exams to work double shifts just to keep her dream alive.

Christina opened her bottom drawer. She pulled out a thin gray folder and slid it across the desk.

"I am a fair CEO." Christina tapped the folder. "I compensate my employees. Consider this your severance package. Inside is a check for one hundred thousand dollars. There is also a non disclosure agreement."

Magnus stared at the gray folder. He felt sick.

"One hundred thousand." Magnus kept his voice dangerously low. "Kensington Corporation is valued at 200 million dollars and you offer me one hundred thousand to walk away."

"It is more money than you have ever seen." Christina stated. "It is enough to buy a small apartment in the suburbs. Take the money. Sign the agreement. Go back to your clinic and live your ordinary life."

"Keep your money." Magnus shoved the folder back. "I am your husband not an employee you can fire with a severance check."

"You will take the deal." Christina narrowed her eyes. "Do not let pride make you foolish. You have no power here, you are just a poor doctor."

The office doors swung open with a loud crash.

Christopher Kensington strutted into the room holding a steaming cup of coffee. He wore a custom suit and a gold watch. A cruel smirk stretched across his face when he saw Magnus standing there.

"I told you the stray dog would come barking." Christopher laughed. He walked over and stood right next to his sister. "Look at him. He still smells like cheap rubbing alcohol and poor people."

"Christopher." Christina sighed. "I am handling this."

"You are too soft on him." Christopher sneered. He stepped directly into Magnus's personal space. "Listen to me. The free ride is over. You hit the jackpot when my sister married you out of pity. You got to live in our mansion. You got to eat our food. Now the lease is up."

Magnus looked at his brother in law. Christopher was the vice president of the company. It was a title he had acquired simply by sharing a last name.

"Your sister did not marry me out of pity." Magnus spoke with a quiet intensity. "She married me because I was the only person willing to work three jobs to keep your father out of debtor prison."

"Shut your mouth." Christopher growled. His face flushed bright red. "We built Kensington Corporation. Our blood made this empire. You just stood in the background holding her purse."

"I held the entire family together." Magnus said. "While you were gambling away the marketing budget in card games."

Christopher's eyes widened with rage. He raised his hand and intentionally tipped his cup forward.

The scalding hot coffee splashed directly onto Magnus's white coat. The dark liquid soaked through his trousers and ruined his cheap shoes.

"Oops." Christopher smiled a wicked smile. "My hand slipped."

Magnus did not move. He felt the burning liquid stick to his skin. He just stared at the arrogant man in front of him.

"Look at the mess you made." Christopher reached into his pocket. He pulled out a crisp hundred dollar bill. He dropped it onto the puddle of coffee on the floor. "There is a tip for your dry cleaning. Bend down and pick it up. Then get out of my building before I have security drag you out by your cheap collar."

"You are a coward Christopher." Magnus said softly.

"And you are a broke loser." Christopher fired back. "You do not belong in our world. We are about to become royalty. You do not belong in a royal court."

"Is he still refusing to sign?"

A sharp voice echoed from the hallway. Christen Kensington marched into the office. She carried a designer handbag that cost more than Magnus made in a year. Her heels clicked loudly against the hardwood floor.

"Mother." Christina rubbed her temples. "He is almost done."

"Almost?" Christen scoffed. She looked at Magnus like he was a pile of garbage on the sidewalk. "You owe this parasite nothing. He should be paying us for the privilege of breathing our air for three years."

Christen opened her expensive handbag. She dug her hand inside and pulled out a small silver ring.

It was the engagement ring Magnus had given Christina. He had saved for two years to buy it.

Christen threw the ring directly at his face.

The metal struck Magnus hard on the cheekbone. It bounced off his skin and clattered onto the floor. It rolled into the puddle of spilled coffee.

"Take your cheap trash." Christen shouted. Her face twisted with pure disgust. "I am having your belongings boxed up and thrown into the street. If you ever claim you know our family in public I will ruin your medical license."

Magnus touched his stinging cheek. He looked down at the ring resting in the brown liquid.

"You are throwing away three years of marriage." Magnus looked up at Christen. "Because of greed."

"I am throwing away a parasite." Christen crossed her arms. "You poisoned my daughter. You manipulated her into accepting a pathetic life. You held her back from her true destiny."

"I kept her alive when you all abandoned her." Magnus said.

"We do not need a nurse." Christen shrieked. "We need power. And we have finally secured it."

Christen smiled a vicious, triumphant smile. She walked over and placed her hands on Christina's shoulders.

"My daughter is going to marry Kevin Harrington." Christen announced proudly. "He is returning from abroad tomorrow. The Harrington family owns half the commercial real estate in this city. That is elite status. That is global influence."

Magnus processed the name. Kevin Harrington. The wealthy heir.

"You are divorcing me to marry Kevin Harrington." Magnus looked at Christina. "You planned this before you even handed me the papers."

Christina met his gaze without any shame.

"An alliance with the Harrington family is a rare opportunity." Christina said firmly. "Kevin can offer me things you cannot even comprehend. He has generational wealth. You have a stethoscope. It is simple math."

"He is a real man." Christopher laughed loudly. "Not a charity case playing doctor in the slums. You are not even fit to shine Kevin Harrington's shoes."

Silence fell over the large corporate office.

They waited for him to break. They wanted him to scream. They wanted him to beg on his knees and cry. They needed him to shatter so they could feel powerful and justified in their betrayal.

Magnus did not give them the satisfaction.

The burning pain in his leg from the coffee faded. The sting on his cheek vanished. He felt a sudden clarity. He saw the Kensington family for exactly what they were. They were bottomless pits of greed.

Magnus slowly bent down. He ignored the hundred dollar bill. He picked up his silver ring from the coffee puddle. He wiped it clean on his coat and slid it into his pocket.

He stood up straight and looked at the three of them.

"I understand." Magnus said. His voice was devoid of emotion.

He reached across the desk and picked up the gold pen. He flipped to the fourth page of the legal document. He signed his name with quick strokes. He tossed the pen onto the desk.

"What are you doing?" Christopher frowned. He had expected a fight.

"I am giving you  what you want." Magnus said calmly. "You want to climb the social ladder. You want Kevin Harrington. You have him."

Magnus turned around and began walking toward the door.

"Take your severance check." Christina called out. Her voice sounded strange.

"Keep it." Magnus replied without stopping. "Consider it a donation. Buy yourself a conscience."

"Get out." Christen yelled at his back. "And never show your face near my daughter again."

Magnus pushed the heavy doors open and walked out into the hallway. He did not look back. He walked with his head held high. He left the suffocating room and the toxic family behind him forever.

Back inside the office Christopher let out a loud cheer.

"Finally." Christopher clapped his hands together. "The trash took itself out. I told you we did not need to pay him a dime."

"Good riddance." Christen kicked the hundred dollar bill under the desk. "I will call the Harrington estate immediately. We need to finalize the engagement dinner details before the public offering."

Christina did not say anything.

She stared at the signed divorce papers on her desk. She had won. She had cleanly severed her ties to her embarrassing past. She was free to marry into true wealth. Everything had proceeded exactly according to her strict calculations.

Yet her chest felt hollow.

She looked at the puddle of spilled coffee on the floor. She remembered the way Magnus had looked at her right before he signed the paper. There was no anger in his eyes. There was only pity.

He had looked at her like she was the one who had just lost everything.

A strange coldness crept into her stomach. She forced herself to look away from the floor and opened her laptop.

"Let us get back to work." Christina said softly. "We have a company to run."

She began to type. She tried to ignore the silence that had settled over the room. She tried to ignore the feeling that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life