“Fuck you.” He growled.
I laughed.
“Frank, you fucked yourself as soon as you drew up those illegal NDAs. You’ve done tons of unethical shit for me and if I have to start over with a new lawyer, I will have to disclose all of it. They’ll be forced to report you.” I shrugged. “I’m just a finance bro, anything legal is a mystery to me—who’s to say that you didn’t manipulate me into some of the illegal activities with bad legal advice.”
“Shut up.” He slammed a fist down on his desk.
“I will gladly forget this little tantrum of yours if you’re ready to get back to work.” I tilted my head and observed his reaction. His body was tensed up with rage, and his face had turned an interesting shade of purple. I wasn’t sure the man was actually breathing.
“Fine.” He let a puff of air escape and deflated before my eyes. “You win. We are both going to wind up in prison but fine.”
“I have faith that you like your own ass far too much to let us wind up in jail.” I joked and watched his jaw clench. “Ms. Richards is going to write up something about how visiting Angela was a necessary step in my recovery. A version of closure or some shit. I’ve decided I’m going to sign the fucking divorce papers. Like you said, maybe she won’t look to deep into my shit if I just give her the divorce. I can always try to win her back after the dust has settled.” I shrugged. Frank nodded, his relief obvious on his face.
“I’m so glad to hear you say that.” He was sitting up tall again. “I’ll contact Yang right away and tell her we want to meet for mediation. It’ll look suspicious if you just sign it withoutsaying anything after you’ve been begging for a conversation. I’ll demand that Mrs. Landon be present at the mediation but assure Yang that you are willing to give her client a divorce and are hoping to do so amicably.” He gave me a dark look, “but you will need to be prepped before we go into that meeting, and you have to fucking listen to me for once.”
“Sure.” I waved a dismissive hand. “Is there anything else we need to do to make sure that nothing flags as suspicious before that meeting?”
“The forensic accountant found a few things and wants to meet with us ASAP, but I didn’t know where you were. I’ll call him back first.”
“Alright, see if he can meet today. The sooner we get this shit done the sooner I can start working on a plan to get her back.”
Frank stared at me with a peculiar expression on his face for several seconds before he slowly shook his head. “You’re kind of nuts, Benjamin… You know that, right?”
I chuckled and shrugged.
Wanting my wife back doesn’t make me nuts… worse guys than me get second chances all the time.
“They do say being in love can make you a little crazy.”
30-Angela
I watched from a slit in the curtains as Ben got into the car without so much as a glance back. He closed the door of the car, and of our chapter together, with a finality that stung and dug into my already broken heart.
“Who does he think he is?” I whispered to myself.
My whisper was a roar in the silent, empty room.
“He’s not going to get away with this… I’m not going to let him.” I paced in my room and thought about the plan I had come up with when he was ignoring my calls.
I knew more about Ben’s activities than the great Mr. Benjamin Landon realized. I hadn’t found evidence of his other affairs when I had snooped through his computer at work or his phone while he slept, but I had noticed a lot of discrepancies in some of his personal accounts—transfers and account numbers that didn’t make sense. At one point, I’d even read through his emails with his tax guy and realized that what he had claimed last year definitely didn’t match what his personal accounts showed.
If his precious Melanie had filed for divorce, then she’d be interested to know just how much money her darling husband had been hiding away… If I helped her get some of that money, maybe she’d help me.
I smirked.
He was about to find out just how right he was when he said that I was his biggest mistake.
31-Melanie
Waking up in my childhood bedroom was always a strange feeling. I'd been back in this room many times over the years, of course, but almost always with Ben by my side. I looked at the memories that decorated the walls and shelves and had to blink back tears. He had poisoned so many memories with his betrayal.
My mother looked almost as grim as I felt when I joined her at the table with my letters in hand.
“I didn’t want you to read her last words to you with this letter coloring your view… but now that you’ve read yours, I feel like I should share this with you.” Mom explained.
"I don't want to keep secrets from you... One of the letters my mother left contained informationforyou. She wanted-she needed to know that you wouldn’t be left in the dark...” My mother’s voice cracked, and she cleared her throat.
I watched as her hands smoothed out the same wrinkle in the dining room tablecloth over and over. She finally dragged her eyes up to meet mine, and I saw there were tears in hers.“She told me that she had been in Vegas at the same time as Benjamin a couple of months ago.”
