2026-07-10 19:10:47"Professor? What... what do you mean?" Valentina froze on the spot.
Dante frowned as he looked Bianca up and down. "Who are you? Do I know you?"
With a deeply embarrassed expression, Bianca stammered, "I... I took your Marriage Law and Civil Law classes during my junior year. You probably don't remember me..."
Dante's frown deepened. "I remember all of my students, whether top-tier performers or failing ones... unless you skipped too many lectures."
Bianca squeezed out a strained, awkward smile. In truth, she had barely attended three or four classes the entire semester and had almost failed to graduate.
"No wonder you feel so comfortable making up your own legal clauses. Perhaps that is the law in some other country, but certainly not in ours," Dante said smoothly.
"I... I just remembered it wrong, but..." Bianca forced herself to stay calm, trying to regain her footing.
Valentina was completely bewildered. "What on earth do you mean, Bianca? Who is he?!"
"He's... Dante Acerbi, the top divorce attorney in the entire country..." Bianca muttered, her voice completely lacking its previous arrogance.
"That's impossible!" Valentina shrieked. "How could a poor loser like him ever afford such a top-tier lawyer?!"
"Alright, save your 'buts,'" Dante interrupted with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Mrs. Ferretti, our demands are very simple: you are the party at fault in this marriage, and you ought to bear full responsibility."
"Over the past five years, you have fraudulently appropriated over $150,000 of my client's assets. We demand full restitution of these funds—especially... the money you tricked my client into spending on your lover."
Dante exuded absolute confidence, fully in control of the room.
"Furthermore, this house is indisputably pre-marital property—an inheritance left by my client's late parents. It has nothing to do with you whatsoever, which means your entire family must vacate the premises immediately."
"Additionally, your long-term intimacy with your lover right inside this house and right under my client's nose has caused severe damage to my client's mental health. We will be seeking $500,000 in emotional distress damages."
Hearing this, Valentina shrieked, "On what grounds?! This is extortion! There is no way I'm signing this!"
Bianca also stammered weakly, "This... this really is a bit much..."
Valentina glared viciously at Bianca, completely unable to fathom why her friend had suddenly turned into a spineless coward.
"Didn't you claim to be a hotshot lawyer?! How come you don't even dare to speak up in front of him?!"
Bianca stammered, completely unable to form a coherent explanation.
Dante offered a polite smile and said, "It doesn't matter, ladies. We've already decided to take you to court anyway, as I know that with your capabilities, you couldn't possibly pull this much money out of thin air..."
"However, my client and I will ensure you are saddled with over $600,000 in debt, leaving you to spend the rest of your lives working to pay off what you owe him."
Valentina's face turned completely pale as she shrieked, "Marco! Is this how you bully a defenseless woman?!"
Marco shrugged non-chalantly. "Bully you? You played me for a fool for five years, treating me like a slave for your whole family and making me spend money on your lover. And you're saying I'm bullying you?"
"You married me, so you were supposed to accept everything about me!"
"Which is exactly why we're getting a divorce!" Marco's voice was ice-cold. Valentina stared at him as if looking at a complete stranger. This man used to endure everything without complaint—how did he suddenly dare to speak to her like this?
Dante smiled with satisfaction. "Ah, right, Mr. Ferretti. Didn't you ask me why I was twenty minutes late? This is the surprise I prepared for you."
He pulled a document from his briefcase and tossed it gently onto the coffee table.
"A... a court restraining order?!" Valentina stared at the document on the table in utter disbelief. "What does this mean, Bianca?! Tell me right now!"
With a face full of misery, Bianca picked up the restraining order and read through it. "It says... the court has confirmed this house is Marco's property. You are currently suspected of unlawfully occupying another person's property and must move out immediately today, or else... you will be taken into custody!"
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CHAPTER 217
Wendy opened her eyes and straightened. Her voice came out sharper than anyone expected from someone that tired."Casualties. That is what I keep thinking about." She pushed a strand of hair from her forehead. "Every fight we have had so far, people got hurt in ones and twos. This will be different. If Colton hits us with real force, I could have twenty wounded at once. Maybe more.""What do you need?" Marco asked."A proper triage setup. Three stations, not one. Stretchers, tourniquets, blood clotting packs, and at least six people trained to carry the wounded without dropping them." She looked around the table. "And I need them trained this week, not the day the shooting starts.""Diane, give her whoever she asks for." Marco looked at Diane, who was already writing. "Pull them off scavenging if you have to.""Done." Diane did not hesitate. "I will redo the whole labor schedule tonight."The meeting stretched for three hours. Marco asked questions, Okafor argued, Delgado found holes
CHAPTER 216
Perry arrived at the safe house before sunrise with frost in his beard and a folded report clutched against his chest. He did not sit down. He did not take off his coat. He laid the paper on the kitchen table and stepped back as if it might bite him."Read it." Perry's voice was thin and tight. "Please."Marco picked up the report and read it twice. Tank watched him from the floor, ears forward, sensing the change in the air before anyone spoke."Colton finished his purge." Marco set the paper down slowly. "He found someone to blame for the leaks.""Not Okafor." Perry pushed his taped bifocals up his nose, and his hands were shaking. "A sergeant named Harlan Voss. Caught stealing medical supplies a week ago for a completely unrelated reason. Colton decided he was the traitor, put him in front of the whole mall, and shot him. Case closed.""Closed." Marco repeated the word and tasted how bitter it was. "He found a convenient corpse and declared victory over his own paranoia.""And the
CHAPTER 215
"Yesterday morning, two people in this community were caught stealing from the communal food storage." Marco's voice carried across the garage without effort. "Four cases of canned protein and two bags of rice. Hidden under their floorboards."A ripple of anger moved through the crowd. Someone near the back muttered a word that Marco chose to ignore."I want you to understand why they did it." Marco raised his hand to quiet the murmurs. "Dennis and Patricia Hartley survived six weeks on snow water and scavenged scraps. They watched people die around them. When they arrived here and saw that we have food, their fear told them it wouldn't last. So they took extra and hid it."He looked directly at Dennis, who flinched."That's not greed. That's terror." Marco's voice was firm but not cruel. "And I'd bet every person in this room has felt some version of it."Heads nodded slowly. A woman in the second row wiped her eyes."But here's the rule." Marco's tone sharpened. "Everyone contribute
CHAPTER 214
Marco had spent weeks building a fortress, an intelligence network, and a trained security force. Nothing had prepared him for the problem that landed on his kitchen table at seven in the morning, delivered by a furious Diane Kowalski with her clipboard held against her chest like a shield."Third complaint this week." Diane set the clipboard down and rubbed her temples. "The Hendersons in Building 2 say the Garcias are stealing their water ration. The Garcias say the Hendersons are lying because their kid spilled half the jug. And two of the construction workers are fighting over who gets the bottom bunk in the barracks.""Over a bunk." Marco stared at her. Tank lifted his head from the floor and looked between them as if waiting for someone to explain what was happening."Ninety people who didn't choose each other, living in cramped quarters, surviving on rations." Diane's voice was dry and tired. "Everything becomes a fight eventually. I've handled most of it, but some of these dis
CHAPTER 213
Marco walked back to the garage and stood in front of Delgado. The former sergeant sat on an overturned crate with a thermal blanket around his shoulders, his hands wrapped around a cup of hot water that one of the patrol volunteers had given him without asking permission. His people sat behind him in a loose cluster, some of them already asleep on the cold concrete floor, their bodies giving up the fight against exhaustion the moment they felt even a fraction of safety."Here's the deal." Marco folded his arms. "Same offer I give everyone. You contribute labor, you eat. Scavenging, construction, security patrols, medical work, whatever your skills are. Two meals a day. Warm shelter. Clean water. In exchange, you follow the rules, you take orders from the people I've put in charge, and you don't cause problems.""What kind of problems?" Delgado looked up, and his eyes were sharp despite the exhaustion behind them."The kind that end with bodies in my courtyard." Marco didn't flinch. "
CHAPTER 212
The cameras picked them up at seven in the morning.Eleven figures moving through the grey sleet toward the neighborhood's damaged gate, huddled together like a herd of animals crossing open ground and expecting to be shot at any moment."Contact at the south gate." Okafor's voice came through the walkie talkie from his patrol position on the Building 2 rooftop. "Eleven individuals. Mixed group. Civilian clothing. No visible weapons. They look half dead."Marco walked to the monitor and studied the feed. The group moved slowly, some of them limping, one being supported between two others.Their clothes were torn, their skin was grey with cold, and at least three of them had the blackened fingertips and swollen joints that came from severe frostbite left untreated for weeks."Could be real survivors." Natalie stood behind him, watching the screen. "Could be Colton's people wearing rags.""Could be both." Marco zoomed in on the man at the front of the group.Tall, square shouldered desp
