He Threw His Pregnant Wife Out on Christmas Eve for His Mistress – A Private Helicopter Landed for Her in Minutes.
The Strength to Rest
February arrived with complications. Charlotte woke at 3 in the morning. Pain radiated through her abdomen: sharp, sudden, terrifying. They rushed through the dark winter night to the hospital.
“The baby is fine,” Doctor Sloan said finally. “Strong heartbeat, good movement. She is a fighter,”. “Your blood pressure is dangerously high. You are showing signs of preeclampsia. I want to keep you here for observation,”.
Three days in the hospital, thinking about everything that had led to this moment. The battle with Derek was taking its toll on her body.
Maggie came to visit on the second day. “You look like hell,” Maggie said. “You are killing yourself with this, Charlie. The stress, the anger, the obsession with destroying Derek,”.
“He tried to kill me, Maggie. He planned to let me die in childbirth so he could take everything,”. “I know, and that is horrifying. But Charlotte, you are safe now. You do not have to carry this alone,”.
“I have nightmares,” she whispered. “Every night I dream that he finds me, that he takes the baby, that everything I have built falls apart, and I am standing in the snow again with nowhere to go,”.
“Derek cannot hurt you anymore,” Maggie continued. “The only way he can hurt you now is if you let him live in your head, rent free, if you let the fear and the anger consume you,”.
“So what do I do?”. “You let go. Not of the justice, that will happen with or without your constant attention, but of the obsession, the control, the need to personally oversee every detail. You have to for your daughter,”.
That night Charlotte made a decision. She called Henry Callahan, told him to take over completely. “I am sure. I need to focus on my health, on the baby. I trust you and my family to handle the rest,”.
Justice Dawns
A week later, Charlotte was discharged. The obsession had faded. The anger had cooled to something more manageable. She still wanted justice, still wanted Derek to pay, but it no longer consumed her every waking moment. She had other things to think about now: a nursery to prepare, a name to choose, a future to imagine.
“I realized I was hurting myself more than I was hurting him,”. “That is a wise realization,”.
Eleanor smiled. “He said that failure was the best thing that ever happened to him. It taught him what was truly important,”. “Derek was a monster who tried to destroy you. But your response to him—your strength, your resilience, your ability to survive and grow—that is all you. That has nothing to do with him,”. “You have done that, Charlotte. Every single day. That is strength,”.
March brought justice. Charlotte was in her third trimester now, happy, genuinely happy, for the first time in years. The news came in pieces, small victories accumulating into a complete collapse.
First, the SEC investigation concluded. Derek was charged with securities fraud, three counts each carrying significant prison time. Second, his investors filed a class action lawsuit: $12 million in losses, more charges pending. Third, the divorce was finalized.
