Stunned at his words, I watched him walk away, my eyes wandering over his retreating form.He opened the door, then turned when he noticed I wasn’t following.“You coming?”
Rushing after him, I tripped but thankfully didn’t go down.We took our seats again, me doing my best to avoid looking at anything but my hands and Vance hammering out terms of the agreement.
The rest of the meeting was spent wrapped up in lawyer-speak, and I understood about 5 percent of it.
When it was finally over, I shot out of my chair.Vance closed his laptop, putting it calmly back in its bag while I nervously shifted my weight from foot to foot.
He led the way to the exit, and I followed, too scared to ask him if this was it.Too scared to hope that I’d get to keep the girls.
Cockalorum and his lawyer caught up with us as we were almost at the elevator.
Of course, the cocky bastard couldn’t help himself.He came up to me with his stupid swagger that I used to think portrayed confidence.“Glad you finally realized that I don’t owe you a cent.”
What the hell did I ever see in him?
“All I realized was that the sooner this is done, the better.You—”
Vance wrapped a hand around my shoulder, pulling me away before I could say something I’d regret, and bent his head close to my ear.“Don’t let him get to you.”
The words were raspy, spoken in a low whisper.
A shiver worked its way through my body, and I couldn’t help but lean into Vance.
The elevator arrived, and we all stepped in.Thankfully, it was only three floors.
“I’ll be by on the weekend to pick the girls up,” Cockalorum called out to me as he flounced to the exit where Tammy was waiting.
“You actually meant it when you said you didn’t want anything from your husband except the kids, didn’t you?”
That wasn’t what I thought Vance would say after that disaster of a mediation.
I put on my sunglasses and stepped outside.“It’ll be tight, but we’ll be together.That’s all that matters.”
All we’d be able to afford on my salary was the small apartment I’d rented as a temporary solution.Which would now become our permanent solution.But the one thing I’d always wanted was a family.And while it didn’t look exactly the way I’d imagined, it was enough if I had my girls.
“I can call his lawyer, negotiate a new deal.”
I stopped halfway down the steps, shaking my head.“Please don’t.”
We stopped at the sidewalk and turned to face each other.“Why not?I might be able to get him to at least pay the kids’ tuition so they can stay at their school.”
“Right now, Hank thinks he won.It means he’ll sign the divorce papers.If he even gets a whiff of me trying to get more than he thinks I deserve, then he’ll go back to pushing for full custody.So please, don’t do anything.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
He studied my face for a few uncomfortable seconds, then nodded when he no doubt saw how serious I was.
“Then I’ll proceed as planned.Call me if anything changes.”
He turned and was down the steps before I could respond.He got into a black Mercedes that was parked right outside and drove off.
I hoofed it down the block to where I’d parked my car, thinking it was something else I should sell.It was a three-year-old Ford Explorer that I should be able to get a nice chunk for.I didn’t have to drive too much except to get the girls to school and ballet, and neither was far away.A smaller and cheaper car would work just fine.
Divorce sucked.Especially when your husband was such a dillweed.
Chapter eight
