“He never showed me one. Or he probably didn’t have any chance to, considering I told him I asked for a divorce.”
Silence.
“Lexy, I think we should—”
“Please don’t try talking me out of this,” she begged. “Because if you do, I might really change my mind, and I...I have to do this, Shay. Because Leonisa good man, and so I...I have to do this. Please. Will you help me?”
Chapter Three
Unbelievable.
Leonidas did not like being blindsided. He was not used to it. Rarely ever was. But ever since his wife had asked for a divorce, it was just one shock after another, each time sending him reeling, and this morning was the same.
Why did she ask that he meet with his lawyer first before they talked?
The Kontides & Partners conference room was all clean lines and understated wealth. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked Manhattan’s Financial District, the morning sun casting long rectangles across the mahogany table. Framed photos lined one wall—not the usual parade of celebrity clients and landmark cases, but candid shots of people from all walks of life, all of them smiling. Bibles sat on the sideboard, page tabs of assorted colors marking well-worn passages.
Leonidas had been here before, but never like this.
Never as a man whose wife wanted to leave him.
“I am sorry about this, Leon.”
Adriano Kontides stood across the table, silver eyes uncharacteristically grave. The attorney was dressed in his usual impeccable charcoal suit, dark hair swept back from a face that belonged on ancient coins. At forty-five, he still moved with the coiled energy of a man half his age—but there was no energy now. Only reluctance.
He held out a folder.
Leonidas’s gaze narrowed. “Tell me what this is.”
“Something you will not like,” his friend said quietly.
Leonidas accepted the folder. Flipped it open. And drew his breath sharply as the words before him slowly arranged themselves into meaning.
Petition for Divorce.
And beneath that—
