"As of today, you and I are no longer husband and wife."
Because I'd poached her beloved's people, she'd sentenced our marriage to death.
I laughed. Bitter and hollow.
"Good. I didn't want to be your consort anyway."
In the span of half a year.
I'd received two divorce decrees.
Everything I'd earned through my own business. By the old arrangement between our families, it all belonged to the Castellano household. Elena tossed me half without a second thought. She was just like my brother. She looked down on every cent I'd made.
I secured a license for a trade route along the southern waterfront and started an operation on the river.
After that public beating in broad daylight, almost no one in Kingsport dared work for me anymore.
I had no choice but to hire workers from out of town.
Emilio, on the other hand, had it easy. With a Castellano daughter backing him up, he had leverage I didn't. Workers were conscripted and forced to labor under his command. But at two copper coins a month, people started fleeing before long. Some disguised themselves as out-of-towners and came to work on my shipment crews instead.