Page 26 of Fractured (Not Quite a Billionaire)
She’d stopped walking, and her mouth was opening, then closing. “The official bit,” she finally got out. “That would the actual marriage.” She started walking again and shook her head. “I should still be so upset. Iamstill so upset. But I’m also just…” She waved an arm around. “I’ve got no words.”
“Gobsmacked,” I suggested. “That could be the word you’re looking for. It doesn’t sound like the best plan when you put it that way, no.”
“I know you’re better in business than that,” she said, “because I think we’d call that idea ‘dumb.’”
“Granted. And that one’s done, since you have a forgiving nature.” This was a negotiation, I reminded myself, and I was a good negotiator. Time to move on.
“Nope,” she said.“Notdone. You have to say the ‘w’ word.”
I sighed and gave it up. “I was wrong, then. Happy now? Because I’m not. I’m still married, and I’m not one bit happy about that. You’re disappointed? Well, I’m disappointed as well. You could think of that.”
She was silent, and I said, “What?”
She glanced at me from the corner of her eye and kept walking. We’d come to an expanse of green lawn, a rugby pitch with a stand of trees beyond it, and she turned and headed across, heedless of the damp grass.
“What?” I asked again. “You heard what he said. I wasn’t with Anika long enough to give her the right to anything I’ve earned since.” I ignored the niggle at the back of my neck. I didn’t borrow trouble, and I didn’t worry. Both were a waste of time.
Half your marital property,Walter had said. And I was still married.
No.I hadn’t lived with Anika for three years—quite—and according to Walter, that was the law. We had to go through the formalities, and it would be over, even though it had really been over fifteen years ago.
Hope was beyond the pitch and veering off onto a track made of beaten earth, still muddy after the rain, that led through the trees at the edges of the reserve. I thought about suggesting that walking back to the car might be better than a tramp through the mud in the gathering dark, but I didn’t. If she wanted to walk through mud, I reckoned we were walking through mud.
You see how reasonable I was? How willing to compromise? Pity Hope didn’t.
Finally, she said, “When exactly were you planning on springing the idea of a prenup on me? The day before the wedding, when I was thinking about the vows, and our life together?” When I didn’t answer, she said, “It’s Monday night, Hemi. The wedding was supposed to be Saturday. You were running out of time, weren’t you, if I need an attorney? Or was it that ‘leverage’ thing? And that would have been a good thing to talk about when we had that ‘money’ discussion, don’t you think?”
Her voice was shaking. Anger, sadness, disappointment, I couldn’t tell. Maybe all three. But I had my own share of those, and now, I gave up on fighting it. “Did you hear me agree to that?” I asked. “Did you wonder why I didn’t cut him off? I let you hear him say all of that, and did you ask me about it, or did you jump to conclusions?”
“What? You sounded like you’d already had the conversation. You clearlyhadhad the conversation. When?”
“This morning,” I said reluctantly. “But I didn’t ask him for a prenup.”
We’d come to a junction in the track, and she turned to face me, searching my eyes for the truth. It was even darker here, and I didn’t know what she could see, but Hope always saw too much.
“I don’t…” I said. I wanted to pace, so I held still and centered myself again. “I don’t talk about things until I’m ready to talk about them, and until I have to. I told you, I operate on a need-to-know basis. I didn’t want to talk to Walter about it in the car, so I didn’t. I’ll talk to him about it later.”
“Are you telling me you haven’t thought about asking me for a prenup?”
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?”
Her eyes were still steady on mine. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Trust. I want to trust you, and in some ways, I do. I trust in your goodness. I trust in your honesty, even. I trust that whatever youdotell me will be true.”
“Except that you just questioned what I told you.”
She sighed. “Hemi. If you wanted a prenup, you could have told me. I’d have understood why. Idounderstand why. Like I said—money is power. I get that you’ve built your…your empire, and you’ll keep building it, and it’s yours, not mine. I get that I don’t have a right to it, either to what you’ve already built, or to what you’ll build by yourself in the future. Why wouldn’t I get that?”
“Of course you’ll have a right to it. And this is…” I broke off. “Bloody hell,” I muttered. “I hate this. All this discussing.”
She folded her arms. “Well, tough, because we’re doing it. Why would I have a right to it?”
“Because you’ll be my partner,” I said in exasperation. “Because that’s what marriage is. If I tell you I don’t want you to work as hard as I’ve had to, that I want you to stay with me, to build a life with me, why wouldn’t I have to…to compensate you for that?”
“Ouch.”
I dragged a hand through my hair. “That’s the wrong word? Think of the word you think I should use, and I’ll use that. Do youwanta prenup? I told you. You’re marrying me, and you’re not leaving me, and I’m not leaving you. I’m in this, and I’m in it for good. But it sounds like you’re not.”
The voices were raging at me.Danger. Step back. Don’t give up your power.And I didn’t listen.
