Page 103 of Strictly Business

“Well, as long as he doesn’t tell Michaela, he’ll be fine,” Alex says, and they share a laugh, but my smile fades behind my beer. There’s a pang in my chest at the mention of her. I haven’t seen her since the Valentine’s Day dinner when Robert tried to introduce us. I know he was trying to help me get Sheffield House out there. He doesn’t know our history, how could he? But, I spent the entire night avoiding contact with them on purpose. I had heard David was running for office, I should’ve known they would be there, but Robert insisted I tag along. I had been doing okay after everything, until that night. Seeing her on David’s arm, a polite smile on her lips, nodding along every once in a while, but never actually being part of the conversation… It wasn’t right. It wasn’t her. Her eyes had dimmed, they didn’t sparkle when she laughed. Instead, she looked like she was trying to contain herself. It made me sick. She didn’t deserve to be his arm candy, she’s so much more than that. She made her choice, I reminded myself about two hundred times that night. It’s what she wanted.

“Divorce papers finally came,” Josh says holding up a manila envelope. “Signed, sealed, delivered.”

Divorce papers?

“Finally,” Alex says nonchalantly. How are they so calm? Josh just received divorce papers. I thought Nick said he and Ellie were working on things.

“Whose divorce papers?” I question as though about to step over a landmine.

“My sister.” Josh rips the envelope open and pulls the documents out scanning over them. “We’ve been waiting for these. David and his attorney took their sweet time sending them over.”

“Probably thinks he can convince her to come back,” Alex laughs.

“Wait, Michaela left him?” I ask. Why didn’t anyone tell me?

“About two months ago,” Nick answers with the smirkest smirk I’ve ever seen. “And she’s been Eat, Pray, Loving it all over Europe since.”

Josh tosses the envelope on the table between us. Beneath it, I notice a second envelope, but he doesn’t seem interested in that one. Instead, he reaches for the item that hangs out of the first envelope. A necklace.

“Is that her locket?”

“Yeah, David has been holding it hostage since she left,” Josh says. Sunlight reflects off the silver piece. “His campaign manager made her take it off because it didn’t go with the aesthetic they were creating for the wife of the future Congressman.”

Of course, it all makes sense now — the real reason he wanted her to come back. He needed her to save his image. There couldn’t be a divorce scandal amid running for office. “I wondered where it was the night of the Valentine’s Day dinner,” I say, and all heads turn toward me.

“What Valentine’s Day dinner?” Alex asks.

“Oh, we were at the same event and ran into each other.”

“And you’re just now telling me this?” Josh accuses.

“Nothing happened.” I shrug. “I don’t think we said two words to each other. David made sure of that.”

“Did Nina know about this?” Josh asks Nick.

“Don’t think so. They’ve only started talking again after she left him.” My face must display the what the fuck going through my mind because Nick says, “Apparently, he didn’t want her involved with Nina. He told her that our family is plain and Nina was holding her back.”

“He’s such an ass,” Alex mumbles under his breath.

Josh raises his beer, and we join him in cheering, “Here’s to never seeing that asshole again.” He stands from his chair and excuses himself to call his sister. “She’ll want to know she’s officially a free woman,” he says and walks back inside with both envelopes and the necklace.

I still can’t believe his team convinced her to take that locket off. She never takes it off, not even for the Sheffield House gala. She has worn it every day since her eighteenth birthday. Watching her open it, I remember feeling a certain sense of happiness. She loved it. She loved something I had done for her, but she had no idea the truth behind it. No one except Josh knew I picked it out. We figured it was best not to let her know since we didn’t exactly get along.

“You picked that out, didn’t you?” Nick asks me.

“How’d you know that?”

“Josh told me, made me swear not to tell MJ, though.”

“He went to Finn to help pick something out for Michaela?” Alex questions. “Why didn’t he ask one of us?”

“Your brother was a little busy handling things after your mom died.” I shrug, “I was here, and I have a knack for buying gifts.”

“You mean you had a knack for buying all of your girlfriends gifts to keep them happy.”

“I didn’t have that many,” I say rolling my eyes.

“You had enough,” Nick says.

---