Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 115619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Please, have a seat,” Bob invites, and I watch with little amusement as the six-person team arranges themselves on the opposite side of the long, shining table in the center of the room. He offers them drinks and a few accept bottled water.
Amanda merely shakes her head, too busy giving me a look I know very well. Smug, almost playful. She's fighting back a smile. The best I can do is show no effect at all. She wants to get a rise out of me like the child she is.
One of her lawyers clears his throat, looking up and down the table like he’s making sure his team’s ready to begin. “Mr. Torrio.”
A single glance at Bob shuts that down. “You'll be addressing me,” he informs her team. “I speak for Mr. Torrio.”
Amanda arches an eyebrow. “Did you lose your voice?” she murmurs. “Must be all the screaming you did when I visited you at home over the weekend.”
Bob sits up a little straighter. “Did we or did we not agree that neither party would trespass on the other's property without advance warning to the legal team? If so, I didn’t hear anything about this.”
The stupid bitch. Her face falls when she realizes the trap she stepped in, though she quickly recovers. “I was worried about my daughter.”
“Then why do you imply Mr. Torrio would have any reason to scream at you?” Bob counters. “Miss Torrio lives in her own wing of the house. There was no reason for you to interfere with Mr. Torrio.”
Her cheeks grow redder with every second that ticks by. Romero, who is seated at my left, snorts softly. I don't. The most powerful weapon I have in my arsenal is a blank face. That gets to her better than any screaming or threatening can ever do. A typical bully, unable to deal with being ignored. The second she gets you to react emotionally, she has you trapped.
“Our client has reason to believe her husband is more motivated to come to a final agreement,” another of her lawyers announces. “And if that's the case, it's time to get serious. We've drawn up a new request for a settlement, plus increased monthly alimony payments until such time as Mrs. Torrio remarries.”
“Absolutely not,” Bob replies without bothering to skim at the papers the lawyer slides his way. “There will be no alimony payments beyond what the judge sees fit to award, and the settlement Mr. Torrio offered back when the divorce proceedings were in their early stages is more than generous. There are also several investments that Mr. Torrio is prepared to sign over, as well as the house in Vail. That was the final offer yesterday and will remain the final offer today. The only way that offer will change is for it to decrease, not increase.”
I don’t blink, smile, or snarl. I stare blankly across the table at the woman I once believed I loved. Funny, I saw only what I wanted to see. Hell, her ambition was a turn-on. Right up there with her tits, legs, and those lips that had the power of a hoover vacuum. I had no idea how thin the line between ambition and ruthlessness could be, but I knew now.
“If Mrs. Torrio is interested in more money,” Bob continues, “she can always sell the Vail property once it has been signed over to her. She can also cash out the investments, though that would be a mistake akin to killing the golden goose. Nonetheless, she is a grown woman and can decide as she sees fit.”
The lawyers exchange book’s. “Then there is no agreement,” one lawyer murmurs, glancing at Amanda for verification. She’s seething. Her carefully constructed façade is on the verge of collapse. It’s all a mask. Each piece is placed strategically. Nothing about her is genuine; she’s only an endless pit of misery and emptiness. Dark, screaming emptiness.
I know that now. I know what it means to be with a woman who possesses a soul. One with genuine warmth and kindness, who gives a shit about the people in her life. Tatum, her father—hell, even Lucas. She even wanted to protect him after he ran her down. She showed more compassion in one single moment than Amanda has in her entire life.
After the woman seated across from me twisted him around her finger and put ideas in his head. She’ll never admit it, but she doesn’t have to. The flash of guilt on her face when I initially accused her back in my bedroom told me the entire story. Like a child caught doing what they were so sure nobody else was aware of.
It’s low even for her. It’s not typical for her to do the dirty work. She twisted me up, pushed me to claim more power all for her own endless materialistic needs, then discarded me for other men once it was clear I was over being manipulated. Now, she has this team of clueless assholes doing the dirty work of fighting for more than she deserves.