My husband broke up with me via text: «I’m done with you…

But tonight I’d enjoy the quiet and plan my next chapter. Morning brought a flurry of increasingly angry texts from Mark. What the heck did you do to our credit card? The airline won’t honour our tickets.

The hotel cancelled our reservation. Answer me. I silenced my phone and headed to my boutique.

Friday was always our busiest day, and I had a new shipment of designer handbags to unpack. Life goes on, even when your husband runs off with a receptionist young enough to be his daughter. Around noon his mother called.

Claire dear, Mark told us everything. About how controlling you’ve been. How you drove him away.

He says you’re being vindictive now, causing problems with his travel plans. I put her on speaker while I arranged a window display. Did he mention emptying our joint account and charging tickets for him and his girlfriend on our credit card? Silence.

Then… Well, he said you left him no choice. That you’d been cold and distant. Barbara, I have his texts.

Would you like me to read them to you? The one where he bragged about taking our money? Or maybe the one where he mocked my age? Another pause. He did seem a bit… cruel. I told him that text message was inappropriate.

I appreciate the call, Barbara. I’ve always liked you. But I think it’s best if we end this conversation now.

My lawyer has advised minimal contact with Mark’s family during the proceedings. Proceedings? Already? Goodbye, Barbara. By late afternoon, Mark’s sister Amanda was spreading family gossip through mutual friends.

Apparently Mark and Melissa were stuck at a budget motel near the airport. Their Miami dreams temporarily derailed. He’d tried using his personal credit cards but those had been maxed out for months.

Another red flag I’d noticed. My lawyer called with an update. The emergency hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Given his admission of emptying the joint account and the documented credit card fraud, we’re in a strong position to freeze all remaining assets. Has he been served yet? Not yet. But he’ll get the papers at his new motel address.

Speaking of which, his girlfriend’s social media is providing excellent evidence. She’s been posting about their adventure all day, including some choice comments about you. I smiled thinking of my own documentation, a year’s worth of suspicious charges, hotel receipts, text messages that proved premeditation.

Mark had been so focused on his grand escape that he’d never considered I might be watching, waiting, preparing. My phone buzzed with another text. You think you’re so smart.

But I made copies of all the boutique’s financial records. Half that business is mine. I forwarded the text to my lawyer, adding it to the growing file of Mark’s mistakes.

Let him learn the hard way about separate assets and business ownership. Sometimes the best revenge is simply being prepared. The emergency hearing on Monday was everything I could have hoped for.

Mark showed up in his new young wardrobe, designer jeans too tight for his age, a blazer that screamed midlife crisis. Melissa waited outside, her youth painfully obvious under the harsh courthouse lighting. My lawyer presented our evidence methodically, Mark’s gleeful text about emptying our account, his credit card fraud, his documented history of hidden expenses…