"Yes. She called me a couple of weeks ago and tried to get twenty thousand dollars out of me so she could go on a trip to Aruba with her friends. I told her no and that all further communication between us needed to go through my attorney and then blocked her number."
Man, was that only a couple of weeks ago?
Seemed like ages.
"I'd ask you if you wanted me to get my lawyer on it, but, well..." Knox chuckled.
I chuckled, too, because I could see the humor in his statement. "A lawyer who represents himself is an idiot. Arnold Thomas is taking care of it for me."
"Arnold Thomas." Knox nodded. "He's good."
"Yes, I know." I'd hired the best, but then, so had Madeline, using my money. She had the added benefit of being a beautiful woman who could produce tears on demand. "He's building a case against her to try and get my alimony payments reduced."
I'd be thrilled if he found a way to get rid of the payments altogether. Madeline hadn't worked a single day the entire time we'd been married, even though she was perfectly capable of doing so. It was time for her to stop living on my hard work and take care of herself.
Knox frowned quickly. "I know we pay you a lot, but if you need a loan—"
"No!" I shook my head. "It's not about the money. It's the principle of the thing. Madeline was the one who broke our marriage vows and slept around, not me, so why should I be the one to pay her? She already got the house and the car. I'm not giving her one penny more than I absolutely have to." I snorted as I turned to look out the window. "I'm certainly not paying for her trip to Aruba."
"I thought St. Thomas was in this year."
I shrugged. How the hell would I know? I hadn't been on a vacation in years. I seriously needed to think about taking one. Maybe some place with hot cabana boys in tiny swim trunks and a whole lot of alcohol.
"If you need any help with Madeline, let me know."
"I'd settle for sending her an alimony check every month if she'd just leave me alone, but she won't. This wasn't the first time she called and asked for more money, and I doubt it will be the last. She seems to think she can still use me as her personal ATM even though we're divorced."
And she was not happy that I was refusing to play along.
"Arnold has several recordings of her demanding more money from me. He seems to believe that we'll be able to go before a judge soon and either have the alimony reduced or stopped altogether, and that's what I'm hoping for."
I also kind of wanted to watch Madeline lose her shit when the money stopped. It would happen. In the six months since the divorce had been final, she hadn't done a thing to try and support herself. She kept living her life as if I would always be sending her money.
I wouldn't.
"I want to watch her head explode when the judge reduces the alimony."
I slowly panned to Knox. "I was just thinking the same thing."
Knox chuckled. "I never told you this because I didn't want to add to your troubles, but Madeline came onto me and Burke several times. We had a hell of a time convincing her that we weren't interested."
I groaned, completely embarrassed. "I am so sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn't do it. I'm just sorry you had to be married to such a bitch."
"We were married for almost five years. The first two years were great. It wasn't until the end that I realized what a money-grubbing bitch she was. I'm starting to wonder just how much of an idiot I was. Either Madeline is a fantastic actress or I seriously had my head buried in the sand."
"You saw what Madeline wanted you to see. That's how people like her work. Look what happened to Burke with that psycho Brittany Fox. Everyone felt so bad for her because they believed the crap that came out of her mouth. Very few knew she was insane."
I winced as I thought about the woman who had tried so hard to dig her claws into Alexander Burke. She had tried to convince Burke she was pregnant with his kid. We'd been able to prove that not only was she not pregnant but she'd never been pregnant.
When she lost her bid to get Burke to the altar, she'd apparently lost her mind and tried the same thing with Knox. Of course, that had led Knox to declaring to the world that he was gay and marrying Newt, so it had worked out for them, and Brittany had gone away after shooting Newt and because she needed some serious help.
"What is it with women?" I asked. "Except for your mother, Burke's grandmother, and Mary, I've met very few women who I'd want anything to do with. They're all insane."
"I don't think it's women specifically," Knox replied. "I've run into my share of idiotic men, too. Look at what happened with Senator Baines and Steven Bravos."
"Then how do we keep ending up with them?"
