Overlooked(43)

"I think I like Claire's classes better than Anna's." Lily pulls a shirt over her head and shoots me a look over her shoulder. "Don't tell anyone I said that."

"Wouldn't dream of it. You're very right." I pack the rest of my shower supplies in my bag and give my hair a shake. Yoga and a shower is currently all I'm living for. "She's less judgmental than Anna, too."

"Probably because of her media fast or whatever the hell she calls it. Ignorance is bliss."

"And God love her for that."

Despite hiding in my apartment and seldom coming out, the paparazzi picked up substantially over the last few days. David's been, well, David, and people began speculating where I am and what I'm doing with my time. Go figure, I stop having sex and people start talking about it.

Vivian enjoyed her I-told-you-so speech a lot.

"Where to for lunch?" Lily asks.

We step out of the dimly lit studio into the blinding sun. It's hot, but salt lingers in a cool breeze. My mouth waters for sushi and a mai tai on the beach. There is not a thing in the world ahi tuna wonton nachos can't cure.

"Let's go to Ruby's." I dig in my purse for my keys. I always forget to grab them when repacking my bag, and they always end up at the bottom. "I need a little fish and beach therapy after that session. Carry out the good energy vibes and all that."

Lily stops behind me and doesn't answer. I turn around, still rifling through my bag.

"If you'd rather go somewhere else, that's fine. I'm just jonesing for some nachos."

"Hello Kate."

I freeze. Every good energy vibe I'd accrued in my hour of Bikram floods out of me and a high-pitched ringing in my ears spurs an instant headache. His mere presence is going to kill me. This has to be his plan.

"What do you want?" Lily steps in front of me and crosses her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to talk to my wife."

"Ex." I say firmly and finally find my keys. I grasp them with a key between two fingers, just in case. "I'm not your wife anymore. Remember?"

"State doesn't think so."

"Matter of time." Lily spits.

"We didn't get a chance to talk before, Kate." David continues like Lily didn't say anything. "I misread the situation, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still talk."

"Misread? That's how you're going to look at it?" I stare at him in disbelief. "What the hell made you think I'd sleep with you just because you showed up at my door?"

"With roses."

"I don't even like roses."

"Sure you do. You always loved the roses I brought you. Don't let this temper your memories of us, Kate. Don't stoop that low."

"Stoop that low?" Am I in the twilight zone? Did I really fall down the rabbit hole? "I said I'd talk to you, not that I'd sleep with you."

"Well, it worked the night before we started mediation."

"That was a drunken moment of weakness, you dumbass." Lily yells. She sounds as befuddled and angry as I feel. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"This is none of your business, Lily." David waves her off and holds out another bouquet of roses. "Kate, these are for you. Your favorites. I know this because we know each other. We loved each other once and we can do it again."

"No, we can't." I swallow down the building rage. "I hate roses, David. I don't particularly like you, either. Get off my car."

"I'll call the police." Lily threatens. "They'll come and remove your ass from the car if you won't."

"They won't do shit. That car is still in my name."

"Our name." I snap.

"Don't you have another girl tied up somewhere, waiting to be disappointed by your tiny dick?" Lily steps between us again. "You don't deserve Kate and you sure as hell don't deserve to talk to her."

"Like she's not fucking someone else, too." David says it like it's an established fact. It sends a jolt of ice through my veins. "But that doesn't matter to me, Kate, because we belong to each other. If we need to open our marriage, then so be it. But we belong together. You can have a boyfriend on the side. It's okay. We can make it work."

"You're unbelievable." I mutter. "You are so goddamn disgusting. We aren't getting back together! I don't need a boyfriend on the side, I just need you out of my life. You started this, remember? You screwed around and shattered everything we had."

"That's because you started sleeping with someone else." David waves me off like he did with Lily, like I was a fly who annoyed him. "You didn't want to sleep with me anymore because you were getting it elsewhere, so I went elsewhere, too. All you have to do is sleep with me again and we can cut out everyone else on the side."

"You really are insane." I don't even know how to talk to him like this. I want him to walk off the edge of the planet and eviscerate. "I wasn't sleeping with anyone. You were a disgusting jackass who didn't listen to me and treated me like shit. We've been over all this in mediation and therapy, remember? You were supposed to sign the divorce papers a year ago! I'm not going to talk to you about this anymore. It's done."

"It's not over until I say it's over, Kate." David changes from ridiculous to dangerous in the span of a breath. He slides off my car and advances on me. "You don't get to make the decision to end this. We do what I say."

"You don't own me." I spit, but my hands clench tighter around my keys. "I'm not a prop you move around sets. I'm a person you took advantage of for too damn long. Go away, David."

"I'm not going anywhere until you agree to talk to me. This charade is going to end, Kate. Thinking about you fucking someone else is making me crazy. When I find out who it is, I'll kill them. Don't think I won't."   





 

"You thought I got a side boyfriend?" I sass over Lily's arm. "Guess you're still as full of shit as before."

"You are mine." David growls. "You can't satisfy my appetite, but that doesn't mean this ends. Step up your game and everything will be fine."

"You are getting divorced, dumbass." Lily tries to shove him backwards but he barely moves. "And now you threatened her with bodily harm. That's not going to hold well in court."

"Stay out of this." He sneers.

"I'd rather live in a cardboard box than go back to you." I hold up my fist with the key. "Get away from me."

"I'm one button push away from the cops showing up. Get the hell away from us." Lily lifts her phone enough to show him, but keeps it close to her body. "Try me. Just try me."

"You'd rather live in a cardboard box, eh?" David laughs. It's evil, sinister, totally unhinged. "I can make that happen. Just watch me."

"One more step and I'm calling." Lily warns.

David throws the bouquet at me and mutters, "Fucking bitch."

I stand tall until he gets in his car and peels out of the parking lot. It's only then that I allow myself to collapse.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ERIC



My legal pad is a series of scribbled tits and asses. This conversation is exhausting and my side is losing. Which means I don't want to play anymore.

The day David McArthur leaves my life is going to be glorious. Best damn day of my life. It can't get here soon enough.

"Are you even listening?" Vivian snaps her fingers in my face. "I don't think you've listened to a word I've said in the last five minutes."

"Closer to ten." I toss my pen on the table. "I don't know why this couldn't be done over the phone? You know as well as I nothing we do will make either party happy. David's an asshole, Kate's not budging, neither of them can be made happy."

"You're the side who is refusing to acknowledge Kate's fair share of the combined assets. This is her life, her money, too. Expecting to her roll over on it is ignorant."

"Not ignorant. Her name isn't on the accounts." I point out and spin the pen over my thumb. It was an old debate intimidation tactic we used at competitions, back in my cooler days. It never actually intimidated anyone, but it was a tick that let every lawyer find his fellow forensics nerds.

Spoiler: Vivian is not one. Nor is she intimidated.

"Yes, and we've already established how that happened. He intentionally misled Kate. That's a problem."

"He was within his legal rights. I don't know why we're still talking about this."

"You know as well as I do skirting the law isn't looked upon favorably in court."

"David isn't going to settle for these terms." I shrug carelessly even though it kills me inside.

Vivian is correct and David is a raging asshole for what he did, even if he had the legal right to do it. Kate is getting screwed by the guy who liked to screw the help, and there is no poetic justice to it.

"And Kate won't settle for anything less."

She is smart not to.

"You've got to meet us in the middle, Viv. I know neither of them want this to be handled by a judge, but there has to be some give."

"All she wants is her fair share."

"The law doesn't say it's hers to take."

"The law most certainly does."

"Look, infidelity cases are messy. He's insistent she started the chain of affairs. Even if she didn't, sleeping with someone outside their marriage is not grounds to take the money."