“We have the paperwork all ready,” Eric said, handing me a stack of papers with orange sticky tabs. “We need your John Hancock, and then Grace needs to sign.”
“You should have taken the annulment,” my father insisted. “Divorce her now and don’t wait.”
“There’s ten billion dollars on the line,” I reminded him as I signed the forms.
“It’s too big of a risk,” he said then turned to the Svenssons. “My son has let that woman corrupt him. Save him from himself and file the paperwork as soon as Grace signs it!” My father slammed his palm on the table to accentuate his words.
“Dad,” I said, finally snapping. “This is my life, my business, and my money. I know what I’m doing. I’m the billionaire, not you. You are the one living in my house now. This is how I’m handling my business and a risk I am willing to take. Grace is a wonderful person. I care deeply about her, and she cares about me. She’s not going to screw me over.”
“Stupid boy,” my father snarled at me. “You’re throwing away your future.”
“I assure you, I am not,” I told him. “I am in control. And honestly, you’re constantly acting like you’re looking out for me, but I’m wondering if you actually care.”
“Suit yourself,” my father said, shoving his chair back and grabbing his briefcase. “You’ll be sorry.”
The Svenssons gave me odd looks after my father stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
“He’ll get over it,” I said confidently as I signed the divorce papers. “He’s living with me after all.”
“Do you have plans for the big payout yet?” Eric asked me. “Greg’s been not-so-subtly hinting that he’d like to do business with you.”
“I have a few things I want to explore,” I said coyly, leaning back in my chair.
Shit, I was running with the big dogs now! People were lining up to do business with me. I had to admit, it felt good.
“I told him to give you a minute to get the divorce finalized,” Josh assured me.
“Don’t bother. It’s in the bag,” I said, brushing off his concerns.
Eric gave me a serious look. “You cannot screw this divorce up. This is the most important moment of your life.”
I blew out a breath. “That money is as good as mine.”
Eric glared at me. “It’s not just that she needs to sign—you have to keep Grace in, well, good graces until the divorce goes through the court system. The judge is going to side-eye the fact that she is receiving absolutely no money from you. If the judge even smells a whiff of coercion of Grace or gets a sense that she feels pressured to go through with the divorce, he’s going to throw the book at you. He’ll call all his law school buddies, and those sharks will circle Grace, chumming the water until she’s screaming for your blood.”
“She wouldn’t,” I insisted.
“Dude, listen,” Eric said urgently. “The fact that we’re going into this divorce giving her nothing is going to show a judge that you are negotiating the divorce in bad faith. It starts us out on a bad foot if the divorce gets ugly.”
“It won’t,” I assured my friends. “In fact, I have a romantic evening with her planned. We’re going to end this marriage on a high note.”
52
Grace
After our morning meeting, I forced myself to try to work on my article. The end of my marriage was drawing near. We had one more episode to film, the big one where you had to decide if you were staying married or not to your spouse. Obviously Chris and I were not, and I was totally not sad about it! Nope, not me!
The divorce paperwork should be ready; it couldn’t be that difficult to write up. I wasn’t taking any of Chris’s money or stuff. It should just be an easy, clean break, but I wasn’t a lawyer, so what did I know? But still, it had been weeks since Chris had told the lawyers to draw up the paperwork.
Don’t worry about the paperwork, I reminded myself.You need to move out of fantasyland and back into the real world and secure a book deal.
“Viral article, viral article,” I chanted to myself.
Maybe I could write about getting blown out of my apartment. That could be funny, right? A crazy old woman making candles that smell like her vagina?
Ugh, but that didn’t have anything to do with weddings.
Might make a screenplay, though…
