“Mr. Clark, is it your intention to attempt to include the estate my client has recently inherited from her Aunt Adera in these proceedings?” He asks with an eager tone, making me shoot a look his way. My lawyer has always tried to do what’s best for me so I don’t understand why this would make him happy.
“Isn’t that what I just said? Yes, I want a cut of that estate too.” Troy fires back, causing Mr. Dunhurst to practically bounce in his seat.
“Very well, then. I’ll need a moment with my client.” He tells them as he pops open his briefcase and pulls a thick file from it and sets it in front of me.
“Eden, I have detailed instructions from your aunt to present this file to you should ever that…person…attempt to interfere with your inheritance. Please take a few minutes to look it over before we proceed.”
I give him a confused look but he just nudges the file my way. Troy is almost halfway out of his chair as he leans over the table to get a better look at the file. I don’t miss the nervous look in his eyes as I pull the file closer so it angles down to my lap so that only I can see what’s inside. I keep my expression blank as I sort through the eight by ten dated pictures but it’s a challenge.
Troy at his bachelor party getting a blow job while his face is buried between another woman’s large fake breasts. Troy nailing one of my bridesmaids to a wall in his wedding tux. Troy doing lines of cocaine at a party with a different woman draped up against him. My jaw clenches when I check the date of a picture of him partying on the boat he bought with my parents’ money the day of theirs and Hope’s memorial. It goes on with pictures of a massive mansion with flashy sports cars in front of it and more with him and lots of different women.
I eat my anger with a sigh and flip the photos to the side to scan the banking documents, invoices, and receipts of all the things he’s spent my money on, finally coming to a last picture that has me frowning and then shooting a disbelieving look across to him even as the picture crumbles under my tightening fingers. My thoughts are speeding in a circle as they try to put the pieces together that I just can’t accept so I smooth out the picture and close the file, setting it on the chair next to me, out of reach. I lean forward and snag the documents that we were supposed to sign today and rip them to shreds.
“What the fuck are you doing, bitch?” Troy yells as he leaps to his feet.
I ignore him completely and focus on his lawyer.
“Advise your client that all of his terms are rejected. My counsel’s firm will be doing a forensic audit of your client’s finances going back to the moment we got engaged. All findings will be presented before a judge for his ruling on the dissolution of this marriage.”
Troy’s lawyer drops his head in one of his hands as he nods tiredly. I’m kind of proud at how lawyer-like I managed to sound but it was basically what Mr. Dunhurst had been begging me to do from the start so it was easy enough to remember.
“Please, remove your client from my offices or I will be forced to call security.” He says in a hard tone as Troy continues to hurl abuse my way that I ignore.
His lawyer manhandles him around the conference table but just as he’s pushing him through the door, Troy grasps the frame and barks, “I’m going to make you pay for this, Eden. You’re going to regret crossing me!”
I turn my chair slowly to face him and tilt my head.
“Like you made my parents and Hope pay?”
I see a flash of fear in his eyes before they harden back up with a gleam.
“Nah, that’d be too easy. Be seeing you…wife.”
And then he’s gone and a gasp of pain rushes out of me. I turn back to the table and clutch the edge.
“He…he…my family…Hope!” I gasp as Mr. Dunhurst pats at my back.
“It would seem so. I’m sorry, my dear. Unfortunately, that picture doesn’t prove he tampered with their car, only that he was kneeling next to it on the night of Hope’s party. We can take it to the police but it’s circumstantial at best. I’m afraid we might never be able to prove he was responsible for their deaths.”
I’m swamped with grief and guilt that I brought that monster into our lives. If Troy did have a hand in their deaths, it’s my fault. They’d still be alive if I had better judgment in men. I feel the gaping black void of despair in front of me that will pull me under if I let it. I can’t go there again. I know I will never find my way out if I do. I get my breathing under control as an ice-cold rage fills me, pushing me away from the void. This isn’t over. There’s no way I’ll let him get away with this. I snatch up the torn agreement and find the half that has Troy’s and my legal names and addresses and slip it into the file that I set in front of me again.
“Do you know how she got all this?” I ask him, tapping the file after clearing my throat that’s thick with emotion.
“No, I do not. Your aunt was a sweet woman but she was cagey and had many secrets. She played things pretty close to her chest and only told me what she wanted me to know. I swear there were many times that I thought she was a witch or some kind of psychic.” He laughs but I jerk at the words.
“What do you mean by that?”
He waves a hand like it’s nothing important. “It’s silly really, but she just seemed to know things before they happened. It was almost like she had the sight, like she could see the future.”
I suck in a breath and swallow hard as he taps the file again.
“I believe there is a personal note for you in there at the back of the file.”
I flip the file back open and search it until I find the small envelope that I recognize as being from her personal stationery set. It’s one single sheet of paper with only a few sentences.
My Dearest Eden,
I trust you will use this file wisely and crush that cockroach like the bug he is.
