Chapter 33 - The Final Document
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A few weeks after the birthday party, Richard was sorting through the mail in his home office when he recognized a thick, formal envelope bearing the seal of the Madrid High Court.
His heart did not race. His hands did not tremble. The phantom anxiety of the past was completely gone. He calmly sliced the envelope open with a silver letter opener.
It was a final, formal notice from the state prosecutor. It confirmed that his ex-wife had officially exhausted all of her legal appeals regarding her embezzlement and fraud charges. She had been formally transferred to a high-security federal penitentiary to serve out her mandatory ten-year sentence. Her assets were entirely liquidated, and her parental rights were permanently, irrevocably terminated by the state.
Richard read the document twice. He felt absolutely nothing. No anger, no vindictive joy, no sadness. Just total, profound indifference. The woman who had tormented them was officially reduced to a mere bureaucratic footnote in a sealed legal file.
He walked out of his office, carrying the heavy legal document, and went directly to the large stone fireplace in the living room. A small fire was crackling warmly against the evening chill.
Without a single moment of hesitation, Richard tossed the thick court document directly into the flames.
He watched as the thick paper curled, blackened, and rapidly turned into gray ash, floating harmlessly up the chimney. He was burning the final, physical bridge to his painful past.
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“Is everything okay, Richard?” Clara asked, walking into the room holding a duster.
“Everything is absolutely perfect, Clara,” Richard smiled brightly, turning his back on the fireplace and walking toward the kitchen to help his son with his homework.
