PROPERTIES

It was 12 noon. Everyone had gathered for the final part, the property shares.

The courtroom was a cold, sterile place, the kind of setting that will make anyone feel insignificant the moment they stepped inside. Alex sat at the plaintiff's table, his lawyer, Liam sat beside him, the tension in the air was palpable. Across the aisle, Emily and her mother, Mary, sat with their own legal team, both women exuding an icy confidence that made Alex’s stomach churn.

This was it. The end of the months of bitterness. What had started as a once-loving marriage had devolved into a legal battlefield, where every asset, every dollar, was a prize to be fought over.

And today, the company that Alex had helped build for the past seven years, the same company that had fueled most of the disagreements in their marriage, was fought over too.

The judge, a stern woman with graying hair and a no-nonsense demeanor, took her seat at the bench. She glanced down at the files before her, her expression unrea