Page 113 of Mystic's Sunrise

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’d planned for this moment. Counted on it. Knew the second Kain got fed up enough to leave, I’d bleed him dry. I’d earned that. Deserved it.

And now the law had twisted itself against me.

“TRICARE?” I asked, my voice flat, lifeless. “Base access?”

He sighed before answering, as if even he was exhausted by the system he represented. “Your husband didn’t serve for twenty years, so you don’t qualify under the 20/20/20 rule. Once the divorce is finalized, you’ll lose TRICARE immediately. And since he’s no longer active duty, you’ve already lost your base privileges.”

I stared at him.

I didn’t blink.

Didn’t move.

But something inside me cracked.

I was losing everything.

No health insurance. No guaranteed income. No retirement. Nothing but a crumbling house and a last name that no longer carried any weight.

I shoved back from the desk, rising too fast. The blood roared in my ears, my pulse wild and uneven, my skin too tight for the rage boiling beneath it.

“This is bullshit,” I spat, voice trembling as I fought for air. “I’ve been married to that man for over a decade, and you’re telling me I walk away withnothing?”

He raised both hands in a slow, practiced gesture—calm down, ma’am, don’t throw a chair—but he didn’t speak right away.

“I understand this isn’t what you expected—”

I cut him off with a bitter, jagged laugh that felt like it scraped out from deep inside my chest.

“What I didn’t expect,” I hissed, “was to be replaced by some half-broken little bitch he dragged off the street like a rescue dog. Some trembling stray he thinks makes him a better man.”

For the first time, the lawyer’s expression shifted. A flicker of unease crossed his face—maybe because he finally saw me for who I really was. Or maybe because he realized I wasn’t walking out of here with dignity.

“Well,” he said slowly, “you may be entitled to the majority of the shared assetsifyou can prove adultery.”

I clenched my jaw, breathing hard through my nose to keep from exploding. “His bastard friends will cover for him. And Kain doesn’t even want the house.”

He nodded once, offering nothing more than a vague, bureaucratic shrug. “The court may still consider that a gesture of goodwill.”

His tone said we were done here.

That I’d lost.

But I wasn’t finished.

Not even close.

I had spent years building my life around Kain, around the knowledge that he wouldneverleave me, not really. Because he couldn’t survive without me. Because no one else would put up with the storm he carried inside.

And now?

Now I was being shoved out with nothing but the bones of a plan I thought would never be needed.

No.

No, this wasn’t how it ended.

Without a word, I turned on my heel and walked out of the office, the door slamming behind me hard enough to rattle the frame and make the receptionist flinch.