Page 74 of Hard to Resist

I give Amy a nod as she leaves the room and shuts the door behind her. Then I cross my arms and level with Halston.

“I didn’t contact her. She showed up at the same event I was at. I didn’t even initiate the conversation.”

“She’s saying you went there on purpose and caused her severe emotional distress.”

“I have the invitation to prove I was invited.”

“An invitation that shows her company would be there.”

“Why do I pay you if you can’t even fight such a baseless claim?”

“I never said it wasn’t already dealt with.” Halston nonchalantly leans back in the chair.

Ass.

“Then why are you here?”

“To remind you that her contract terms still have four days until they hit the requirement. It’s clear that she is going to look for any possible violation until the very last second.”

“We already knew she would do that.”

“But now it’s worse because you got into a public fighting match with her.”

“Which is, again, why I pay you a lot of money.”

H & Sons is one of the top law firms in the country, making Halston Hughes one of the best divorce lawyers in this city. There are only a handful of others as highly celebrated as he is, one of whom is Celine’s lawyer.

Ten years ago, when Celine and I first settled on getting a divorce, we were both twenty-five years old. We’d gotten married during the fall of our senior year in college, before either of our careers were established, and hadn’t ever imagined we’d split up—even though we already had issues. Fast forward threeyears, and our marriage was a noose around both of our necks. We had no prenup in place, and Celine was set on burning the world around me. Which is where the outlandish agreement came in.

If I could go back ten years, I’d tell myself to hire a proper lawyer right then instead of caving to Celine’s ridiculous demands and having to shell out money all these years later to deal with the damn mistake.

Halston isn’t cheap.

He pulls out a few sheets of paper from his briefcase and slides them along the glass table.

“I need you to sign these before I head to the notary office.”

I give them a quick look over before grabbing a ballpoint and signing next to the little tabs he’d placed on each page.

“I know I’ve asked you this a million times, but we’re good, right?”

“We are.”

“There’s no chance she finds a loophole, is there?”

“There’s a chance.”

My pen jerks off the page.

“Relax. There’s always a chance, Cullen. But whatever bullshit loophole they possibly find will be just that. Bullshit.” He gives me that signature shark grin, the kind that reminds you the bloody water he swims in is of his own making.

“I need this to be over with.” I slide the papers back to him.

Leaving Celine had been like stepping on a cactus and having to painstakingly remove each of the needles one by one. If even a single prick was left behind, I would be in agony the rest of my life. Which is exactly what she wants. I am determined not to let that happen. I am determined to be free of her so I can finally move on.

Returning to the city was the first step to reclaiming my life. Meeting Verity had just been a bonus. In the years since Celine,I’ve slept with women here and there but nothing ever serious. They’ve all been hollow connections, unable to fix the scars in my heart from where Celine stabbed me.

Verity’s light in my life was the first sign that I could try again, that I could maybe still have the life I’d dreamed about in the city where I grew up—the dream that Celine had shattered and is continuing to shatter.

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