“Sit, Addie,” Daimon gestured to the couches on the other end of his office. “I didn’t anticipate you coming here so early,” he said as he walked to his desk.
“Sorry, I just wanted to get this over with,” I said bluntly. I was nervous and I didn’t know why.
“Fine,” he said, reaching for a manila envelope. “This is all the paperwork you need to sign.” He threw it at me as he went back to his desk and began looking though his own paperwork.
I reaching inside the envelope and pulled out two packages. One had the name of the diner on it. I read it thoroughly. Daimon had acquired it through the bank. He then paid off its debts and shut it down. In less than a week Daimon was able to easily erase my whole life. I looked at the paperwork knowing that it was over. Everything my father and mother had planned, all the years my father and I put into it, was now all gone. I let out a heavy sigh as I resigned myself to my new reality. I began to sign the various places that had an X marking the spot for my signature, making sure I read thoroughly what was in front of me. Once I finished the first bundle of papers, I reached for the second. It was a prenuptial agreement.
“What’s this?” I asked as I began looking through it.
“I know you can read, Addie. Well at least I think you can,” Daimon chuckled.
“You want me to sign this?” I asked.
“Yes I do, among other things, but we can do that on a later date.” He stood up from his desk and walked over to me. “It’s a pre-nup, Addie. I need to protect what’s mine,” he said bluntly.
“I know. It’s just that it’s becoming abundantly clear how much I’m in over my head,” I stated as I read through it.
Basically, I would be given everything while married to him, but once we were divorced I got nothing. Not one penny of what he earned. I understood, he worked for it and I didn’t, but it didn’t make me feel any better. If anything it made me feel worse, like I was insignificant somehow. I was nobody in his life and I contributed nothing to him and his world. Here it was in giant neon letters in my hand.
“Does it bother you?” he asked somewhat surprised.
“No,” I breathed and without thinking, signed it.
“As for the other contract, we’ll have to write that one together seeing how my contract didn’t work the first time around,” he smiled as he sat down in front of me.
“When?” I asked without really bothering with him. “Tomorrow,” he said. I nodded looking down at the two piles of paper which had both changed my life in a span of fifteen minutes. “Addie?”
“Hmm.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I'm fine,” I lied. I stood up and headed out.
“Hey, where are you going without saying anything?” he asked with annoyance.
“I'm leaving, I came to do what was needed and now I'm done,” I said coldly. The truth was I wanted to leave here and just lament about what had happened.
“Addie…” he said again, but I stopped him.
“Tomorrow, tomorrow you own me. But today, I'm Addie Sakis, the daughter of a man whose dream died today. Tomorrow, I'm your Addie, the one you bought, but not today,” I said curtly. Daimon stayed sitting as he watched me intently. I pulled my gaze away from his beautiful blue eyes and left.
“So I hear your father is doing better,” Elissa said over the phone. Both she and Jace would not stop calling, trying to see if I needed anything. Darren was great with what had happened and didn’t push when I wanted to start working again.
“Yeah, he’s doing great actually. Despite all that happened I'm pretty happy with everything,” I said sounding melancholy.
“What do you mean?” she asked nervously.
“Well, I shut the diner down and I didn’t tell my father yet. I figure I’ll wait, but the man isn’t stupid. He knows something’s up. I figure I’ll tell him in a week or so,” I said resigned as I stood in front of our diner looking through the darkened storefront.
“Are you serious? Look, if you need me, I'm here. I’ll always be here for you,” Elissa said trying to comfort me. “Besides, Addie, it was about time. The restaurant had its hay day, now you get to move on and live for yourself.” Her words hit close to home. For myself? Not for another. I don’t even know how long that would last. Daimon had bought me for a price and I let him. He now owned me and I had to accept that.
“Thanks, Elissa,” I said as I hung up.
I moved closer to the storefront and held out my hand. The window was cold to the touch; the diner had given us life and I basically took it away. It now lay there lifeless, gone from our lives.