Chapter 3 - The Echoes of a Dead Marriage
“Harper, please. Pick up the phone. My mother’s lawyers are saying you hired corporate counsel instead of a divorce attorney. Why? What are you doing? Just sign the settlement, Harper. They’re offering you two million dollars. Just take it and let this go.”
He didn't understand. It was never about the money. Two million dollars was a generous payoff for a discarded wife. But it was a pathetic insult for the woman holding the keys to a billion-dollar empire.
On the morning of the hearing, the Seattle sky was a bruised, heavy gray, threatening rain. I dressed with meticulous care. I did not wear the pastel, conservative designer dresses Beatrice had previously approved for me. I wore a sharp, tailored black suit. I pulled my hair back into a severe knot. I looked like a woman walking into a boardroom to execute a hostile takeover.
When I entered the courthouse, Ethan was pacing the marble corridor. He looked exhausted, the dark circles under his eyes standing out starkly against his pale skin.
He stopped when he saw me, stepping forward instinctively, but Marcus smoothly intercepted him, placing a physical barrier between my past and my present.
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"Harper," Ethan breathed, looking at my black suit, his eyes filled with a sudden, confusing fear. "You don't have to do this the hard way. My mother is in there. She’s ready to destroy you if you try to fight the prenuptial agreement."
"Your mother cannot destroy what she does not understand, Ethan," I said coldly, walking past him without breaking my stride.
