Chapter 6 - The Liquidation of an IllusionThe legal battle didn't drag on for years as Mason’s high-priced defense attorneys had desperately hoped; it lasted precisely fourteen days.
By the time we appeared before Judge Sterling in the downtown family and corporate court division, Mason was a hollowed-out ghost of the untouchable Chicago tycoon he used to be. His high-rise offices had been repossessed, his construction syndicates were placed under federal receivership, and his personal bank accounts were reduced to a mandatory living allowance while the courts sorted through the liquidation of his remaining personal property. Standing before the mahogany bench in a sharp charcoal suit, listening to the judge read the final divorce decree granting me one hundred percent ownership of the primary real estate assets, commercial logistics patents, and corporate equities, Mason stared across the courtroom floor at me with a mixture of raw terror and pathetic disbelief. He had spent years believing that charm, intimidation, and hidden betrayals made him invincible, never realizing that the quiet woman organizing his galas was the only thing keeping his entire world from collapsing into the dirt.
