“The skank that Greaser escorted out. The other one, if she shows up, you are to treat her with the utmost respect, and if she needs her truck worked on, do it. No charge. Ever. If I find out anyone of you took money from her to get her vehicle worked on, any vehicle she arrives in, you will be fired on the spot,” he said, and glared at Randy.
“I didn’t touch the money she slapped down on the counter.” Randy actually held up his hands and backed away from his boss.
“Fine, go change it in for twenties and go down the street and give each homeless person you see a twenty. Don’t come back until the money’s gone.” He turned in a circle. “Alright, everybody back to work.” He stormed to his office and slammed the door behind him. He picked up the phone and dialed.
“Jackson, this is Link Murphy. I was just served with divorce papers, when can I make an appointment to come in and see you?” He listened and made an appointment to see his lawyer later that afternoon. He went out and started working on the car he and Greaser had been working on before all the interruptions. It seemed that no matter how pissed he was at the world as a whole, or any individual person, when he is working on a car, it relaxed him and he could put his problems into perspective. That was his coping mechanism. He shook his head, and smiledwhen he remembered that Addison coped by talking her fears out loud by giving herself a pep talk, and pacing as she did.
At six that night, showered, and dressed in slacks and a dress shirt, Link walked into his lawyer’s office. He handed the envelope over to Jackson, and sat down without being invited. “I received this around eleven this morning.”
“You read it?” Jackson asked as he took it and started reading. Several times his brows raised and he took notes. When he was done, he looked at not only his client, but also his brother in the motorcycle club. “She’s being very generous. What do you want to change? What do you want?”
“Nothing. I won’t sign. I will never, ever sign. I love my wife, what happened was wrong, but you and Burt viewed our video, you saw what happened. That part I’ll fight, but I don’t want a divorce. I love her, I want to make our marriage work. So, I don’t know what you have to do, but I refuse to sign those papers.” Link looked at the other man hard. “I don’t care if I have to drag this out for decades, I will not sign those, or any other divorce papers she presents me with.”
Jackson looked at him in utter shock. “Really? Shit, I’ll try to see what I can do, but I have to go over some of these things with you first. I want to get a better perspective of what we may be dealing with. Why isn’t she going after the house or your business? Her keeping her business I can understand, do you want any part of it?”
“No, she had her business before we hooked up, as did I. We never messed with each other’s businesses. I assume she doesn’t want the house because I inherited it from my grandparents, again, before we met. I had always said I would, but I never got around to putting her name on anything. The only thing she contributed to the house was helping pay down on a second mortgage I had to get when my business looked like it might stay in the red.”
“Okay, but I have to ask you something. I’m asking as your lawyer, and as your friend because I was there. She’s charging you with infidelity. You accused her of going to a local hotel and meeting men there. Is there any truth to that?”
“Yes and no.” Link sighed and rubbed his face. “That skank planted the seed in my head. I happened to be across the street a couple days later using the wrecker to remove a car for the police. I saw her, Addison, across the street meet two men. They hugged her and kissed her cheek. She hugged them back, then they went into the hotel. For a week I staked out that hotel. On six different occasions she met a different man each time.”
“Do you think she’s having sex with them?”
“Honestly?” Link asked, and sighed deeply at Jackson’s nod. “In the past, I wouldn’t think it of her. But she has an office, why isn’t she meeting these clients there?” He rose and began to pace. “Before that blowup at the clubhouse she’d been working later and she’s always tired. Falling asleep as soon as she’s in bed.”
“Do you have any children?”
“No, but we’ve been slacking off on the birth control. We aren’t actively trying to have a baby, but if it happens, it happens.” He shrugged.
“Is that you talking or her talking?”
“Actually, it’s both of us talking. We decided a year ago that we would start to try to have a baby. We want to start a family, but we weren’t like some couples that took their temperatures and fucked like rabbits at the right time of the month. We both believed that if we were both on the same wavelength, took things naturally by slacking off on the birth control, and letting nature take its course, then things would happen for us.”
Jackson studied the man pacing his office and sighed. “Are you sure she still feels the same way?” At his confused look hesighed. “About having a baby. Things have changed.” He held up the divorce papers to prove it.
“I refuse to sign them,” Link said firmly. He gripped the back of a chair and clenched it so hard his knuckles were white. “She can take anything she wants, the house, my business, hell, she can even take my truck, the bike, and all my money, I don’t give a fuck. But, Jackson, I won’t sign those divorce papers. You’re my lawyer, make sure you make it happen.”
“Okay.” Jackson sighed and continued to study the man before him. “How would you feel about me calling in the private investigator I use and get pictures of her with her clients?”
“To prove what?”
“I still see doubt of her fidelity in your expression.”
“But how would that help me on my infidelity? She’s still accusing me of what happened with that skank.”
“But luck is on our side with that. If this goes to court and it gets ugly, we can produce the footage from the clubhouse. It clearly shows that you’re asleep or passed out and you weren’t aware of what was going on. You’re not seeing her are you?”
“About that.” Link sighed and sat down and told him what had happened earlier that day, with Steph and Addy.
“Damn, if I didn’t know better, I’d say this Steph woman was stalking either you or Addy and showing up at the most critical time.”
Link frowned, then joking, asked, “Hell, why don’t we use that investigator of yours and follow Steph around to see if she is stalking us. Maybe we can bring charges against her.”
“I’ll look into it. In the meantime, I’ll contact Addy’s lawyer and tell him your request. I’ll work on your counter and get it over to him. I’ll call you back in a couple of days to come in, look it over and sign.”
“Is there a timeline?”
“As soon as you’re served, which you have been. You have twenty days to counter, deny or agree. We’re doing that. Nothing has a timeline after that. It’s on the couple and their lawyers to try to iron things out before it goes to a judge. But I’ll tell you right now, Abe, it may be recommended that you two go to counseling.”
