The morning air outside the Valmont City Family Tribunal felt strangely heavy. Reporters gathered behind metal barriers, murmuring as if they sensed something far beyond a routine legal dispute. Their cameras were already raised, waiting for any movement that could spark a headline.
Inside a modest taxi that had just pulled up, Marina Solberg, thirty one years old and eight months pregnant, hesitated before stepping out. Her soft grey dress clung to her like a fragile curtain, and although she tried to keep her posture steady, her hands trembled uncontrollably. She inhaled deeply and whispered to herself.
“I can do this. I have to.”
She approached the courthouse entrance, clutching the strap of her bag as if it were the only thing keeping her upright. She was there to request a protective order against her husband, Cassian Vautrin, one of the most powerful biotech magnates in the country. The public knew him as a genius philanthropist. Marina knew him as the man who had slowly turned her life into a cage.