Accidentally Met Her: An Accidental Marriage Romance

by Lauren Wood

Chapter 24

  Candy

  “Hey mom, I didn't know that you were going to be here.”

  “Well I would've called and told you, but you haven't been calling me back lately. Have you been that busy?”

  I told her that I had been busy with work probably, but she didn't want to hear about my job. She never did. She didn't understand why I went to college and got a degree, because mom could never understand why I’d gotten a job to begin with. She always used to tell me with a face like the one I had, I would never have to work. I wanted to work though, so she didn't quite get that.

  “You know that you can't spend your whole life working Candy. You are getting older now and you have to make some decisions if you want to have a family.”

  I was just getting home from work and I had a feeling that she had timed it just right. I don't know where she got the information, but there really was no telling with her. Cynthia had a way of getting what she wanted, no matter the cost and I was trying to figure out what her angle was.

  She walked in after me and made a comment about the fact that I was living here by myself. I didn’t want to get into it, but like always, I didn’t have much of a choice. She had always been the type of mom that would butt into my life and there was nothing that I could really do about it.

  “I just don’t like you staying here. If you’re not going to go back home with Jax, then you should come stay with me and your father. You know that you always have a place to stay with us.”

  I thanked her, but there was no way. I just had to find the way to say hell no politely. I wasn’t sure how yet, but I knew that it would come to me.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  “I just got off work mom. Just give me a minute. I don’t want to argue with you, but I’ve had a very long day and I really don’t want to talk about Jax.”

  “What about talking about your current husband?”

  “Colt? What about him?”

  “Well how about the fact that he is richer than a frickin Titan?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  My mom looked at me a little surprised and asked me how I knew.

  “I thought you said you didn't know much about him?”

  “Well, I mean, I really don't. I just know that he's a lawyer and he's pretty high up there.”

  “The man is in the top ten entrepreneurs in the city. He doesn't work for the company, he and his father made it what it is. I think you were swindled into thinking he had less than he did. He is a multi-millionaire on his own, not including his family money.”

  I'm not going to say that I wasn't shocked, but at the same time, I really didn't care. My mom's eyes are huge, and I could see that she was already counting the money in her head, but it wasn't something that I was too worried about. The last thing that I was worried about was somebody else's money.

  “I don't see what that has to do with anything.”

  “Well, you know that I was going to take the divorce papers over to the lawyer, right?”

  “Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Have the papers been filed yet? I haven’t heard anything from Charlie.”

  “That is what I came over here to talk to you about.”

  I was getting a bad feeling again and this time I knew it was because of my mom. She had done something, I just knew it. Most of the time, she was pretty predictable, but sometimes she would surprise me still. I had a feeling that this was going to be bad.

  “What is there to talk about? You were just supposed to drop it off at the lawyers and that was it. I thought that he was going to file it so that it would be over with by now. What’s taking so long?”

  “Well when you didn't marry Jax, and you moved out, I didn't think that you were in that big of a rush. So, I had the lawyers look into him and find out what kind of person he was. You know, so that you could have the best legal representation.”

  It didn't sound like she was worried about his personality at all. It sounded like she was far more worried about what was in his bank account.

  “What kind of person he is? It doesn't really matter, that's the whole point of getting divorced. I'm cutting ties with him anyways, so I don't understand why any of this matter. You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “It matters because you are walking away with nothing. That man is richer than a lot of people that I know, and you have a right to half of it. There is no prenup, and lawyers have assured me that you should fight for what is yours.”

  I just sort of shook my head and told her that she was crazy.

  “I don't deserve anything. We were married for several years, but I've only seen him twice in all of that time. I didn't even know I was married a week ago before all that, so why in the world would I try to take his money?”

  “You just don't think child. You are getting older and if you're not going to marry Jax, what are you going to do? You seem to think that money just grows on trees.”

  “No, you seem to think that I have to have a man to survive. I am not you in that way and I never have been. I am going to do just fine, whether I find a man to spend it with me or not. You are the one that needs to come to this in your own head, not me.”

  It wasn't the first time that I said something like that to her, but it had been a while. Once I started dating Jax, I didn't want him to see how dysfunctional we were, so I tried to get along with her as best as I could. That meant a lot of tongue biting and I was getting sick of it. The last thing that I wanted to do was keep it up. That's why I had moved into my own place, so I wouldn’t have to have these conversations and arguments anymore. And if I did, it would be when I went to my mom’s house prepared for it, not when I came home trying to get on with my life.

  “I can't believe you're talking to me like this. I am your mother.”

  “I know, but you went way out of bounds. You said that you were just going to drop the paperwork off, now you are talking about something else altogether different. This is not what I want in any way shape or form and I will not allow it to happen. I just want a divorce, and he can keep everything. That is the way it's going to be.”

  My mom acted like she understood, but I wasn't sure if she did. She didn't look like she was innocent, she never did, and I had to wonder why she was going with it so easily. It looked like she was bubbling over inside and wanted to say something. I just wasn't sure what it was.

  “So, promise me that you're going to let this alone.”

  She was begrudging about it, but she finally promise that she would. I wasn't sure if I believe her or not, but I was hoping that she had finally gotten the point.

  She stayed around a little while longer, having a glass of wine and asking me about Jax. I swear that she just didn't get things. She went from one man that I didn’t want to talk about, to another man that I didn't want to talk about it. It was all just too confusing, and mom couldn't seem to see that I just needed some time alone.

  When she left I was finally able to breathe again, and I felt like I had just survived world war one. That's how she was.

  Checking my messages, I made sure that there weren't any emails I had to read and respond to you right away before I went to bed. The art gallery was getting busier by the day and even though my family didn't seem to care much about my job, I loved it. I just had to figure out a way not to let them ruin it.

  She had asked lot of questions about Jax that I really didn't have the answer for. We had broken up about a month ago. But he was still around, trying to get me to talk to him. I was just to the point I didn't know what to say anymore and like my mom, I was avoiding him as much as possible. I just felt like I had let everybody down, and he didn't even know the worst part. I had kept my infidelities from him so that it wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t know if that was for me, or for him.

  I went to bed that night and like every other night, it was awful. I thought about Colt too much and I how I felt about him was the reason that I had pulled back from Jax.

  If I had reall
y love Jax then I never would have fallen for my husband. It was strange to think that he was still my husband and I was starting to wonder if there was some reason for that. Maybe there was some cosmic reasons that I didn't understand yet.

  When I woke up the next morning, I picked up my phone and I wanted to call him. I hadn't talked to Colt since I left Vegas, but I ended up getting a call from work about a delivery that was already at the place and the thought was pushed from my head until the next night.

  I kept procrastinating calling him because I didn't know how to handle it. If it was all cosmic and it was all meant to be, then maybe I should just let it play out. Either that, or I was a big chicken.

  Chapter 25

  Colt

  I was getting a weekly update from my lawyer about the divorce, or the lack of any information. Thankfully, I got busy at work when a couple of my clients had done some very stupid things that were taking up all of my time. It was nice because I didn't have to worry about thinking of Candy and the knots in my stomach that it would cause. Instead I could just throw myself into work and try to forget everything.

  Nights were still hard, and I still dreamed about her every night, but it was getting easier. This is what I had to tell myself anyways. That it was somehow going to get easier.

  “So, tell me some news.”

  “Well colt, I was actually going to call you in a little bit because I did finally get some news.”

  He was watching his wording and that made me a little nervous. When my lawyer started sounding like a lawyer, even when he was talking to me, that meant that he was going to tell me something that I certainly do not want to hear. I didn't know what it was, but since he knew that I didn't want the divorce, maybe it finally been filed. Maybe I had missed my chance and she was sick of waiting.

  “So, what is it that you got to tell me?”

  “I don't really know how to say this Colt.”

  “Well just say it then. I've never seen you not able to talk, what is going on? You’re freaking me out.”

  “Well, something did get filed a couple days ago and I'm just now seeing the copy of it. I don't know why it took me so long, but I have a couple of days to make a response. I need to know what you want me to do.”

  “Well if she wants to divorce me, there's nothing I can really do about it. Just go ahead with it. What more is there to talk about?”

  I was getting short with him, which I knew it was because I was upset. I had started to believe that somehow this was all going to turn out okay, but I should have known better. I should have known that she was going to file eventually, I just didn't understand why it had taken so long. In a way, it felt like she was fucking with my head.

  Investigators told me that she’d found a place to live by herself and that had given me more hope. Now I was pissed at myself, as well as everybody else who had told me that I still had a chance.

  The lawyer interrupted my thoughts with the next sentence.

  “I know that you said you were going to let it go through, but this isn't the same one that she had you signed, I don't think anyways. I know that you love her or loved her, but there is no way that you would have signed this document.”

  “I didn't really look at it. So, there is no telling what is in it, why?”

  Something told me that I wasn't going to like what he was about to tell me next. I really wasn't going to like it by the way he was acting. How bad could it be?

  “Because she is asking for half Colt. Not just half of what you have now, but she wants half of what you're going to make in years to come as well. She wants alimony from you too.”

  His words were almost foreign to me and I couldn't believe what he was saying. There was just no way that Candy had made a document like that and had me sign it. I know that I haven't looked at it, but it wasn't that thick, more like a standard divorce decree. It wasn't thick enough to have added all of that in there.

  “It had to have been changed after I signed it. Is there a signature at the bottom?”

  He said that there was, but that it could easily have been transferred.

  “There was no case number on the last page, something that maybe you didn't see before, but it could have easily been added in later. They could have transferred your name, forged it, there really is no telling. It could just be a good old forgery. Are you sure that you didn't sign this?”

  “Come on, you know me better than that. There is no way that my family would that fly anyways. A lot of my net worth is in stocks and there is no way that they would let her get a share in the company.”.

  “So, what do you want me to do Colt?”

  It was becoming clear what had to be done. I wasn't going to be able to go through the lawyers and get through this unscathed. Apparently, I was going to have to call Candy and find out what was going on. I told him that I would get back to him shortly and he told me to hurry it up, because he only had a couple of days to answer.

  I got off the phone with him and I wasn't sure what to think. There was a lot going on in my mind and I just couldn't believe it. She had even said something about it when I’d joked about it, but now I guess I was seeing her true colors. I can't say that I liked it all that much.

  ...

  When I tried to call Candy, the number was disconnected. I had called it a couple of times before, hanging up when she answered or before the answering machine could pick up, and it always worked. I didn't understand why it wasn’t now and it started to make me believe my lawyer even more. I had wanted to think that this was all some sort of mistake, that she would never do this to me, but apparently, I was wrong all along.

  I checked the number that the investigator had given me and then I called him to make sure that it was a current number.

  “It was current two days ago.”

  It didn't make sense that I couldn't get ahold of her and I thought about going to California to see her. It certainly was worth the trip, considering how much money she was trying to get out of me. I knew that it may be the only way that I was going to see her. I had to talk to her before I decided one way or another how to handle it. I still was trying to hold on to the idea that this was a big misunderstanding. There was no way that she could do this to me, right?

  ***

  I wanted to leave right away, but since work was so crazy, I wasn't going to be able to. I knew that I was going to have to talk to Candy about everything, but I can't say that I was really looking forward to it. I was more in shock than anything else and I was hopeful that everything was just a misunderstanding. If it wasn't, I really wasn't sure where to go from there. I loved her, and I certainly didn't want to fight with her, but at the same time, I certainly didn't want to give her all my money either.

  My lawyer called me back a couple of days later and asked me what I wanted to do. I had told him that I would call him when I found out, but I still didn't know.

  “Can we delay it?”

  “Yeah, but we need to have grounds.”

  I told him that I didn't really care how he did it and what the legality of it was, I just wanted a little more time to figure out what was going on.

  “It is pretty clear what is going on Colt. The woman is trying to take your money. I don't know how else to say it.”

  His words hurt, and it must have been because I knew that it might be true. There was a part of me that didn't want to believe it, to believe any of it, but it was becoming apparent that I was going to have to. He had sent me the paperwork and it was all in black and white. He also said that Candy’s lawyer wouldn't return his calls, so I had a feeling that he knew that there was going to be a war.

  “Hell Chis, I don't really know what to say. You know that I'm not going to give her half of my money. I don't give a damn how much I care about her, there is no way that she's getting half. Can't you defend with desertion or neglect or something like that?”

  I was half joking but when he agreed that he could have, I told him to write up some papers and just send it
my way. I wasn't going to represent myself and I didn't really have time at the moment to get into it. I trusted Chris and I knew that he would figure it out. If nothing else, I just needed a little bit more time to figure out what was going on. I still wasn't convinced that she was trying to rob me, even though all of the proof pointed towards that conclusion. Not everything was how it seemed.

  The next few days were full for me and I didn't get talk to Chris until the third night. He had sent over the paperwork, but I still hadn't taken a look at it. I think it was easier to be in denial, if I didn't have to see it written out.

  When I finally did call him back, it was after hours and I knew he was going to charge me an arm and a leg. I really didn't care though. I needed to talk now, and this was the only time that I could.

  “So, what do you want me to do Colt?”

  “I don't know, I guess this looks good enough. I hate to have to fight her in court, but I'm certainly not going to let her get away with this. She really didn't seem the type.”

  “You know that they're all that type. They can't help themselves or something. All they can think about is money. That is why I don't marry, I date, but I will never get married again. My first ex-wife was the one that made me want to be a divorce attorney, did you know that?”

  I told him that I didn’t, and he told me why. She had gotten him for half, and she got the kids, and the house, and pretty much everything else she’d asked for, including his own aunt’s ashes. It was all done legally, and he hadn’t gotten over it. I didn’t want to turn out bitter like him, though I could already feel it creeping in.

  “I really didn't think that it was going to be like this. For all intent and purpose, what we had wasn't even a marriage. I was under the assumption that it had to at least be a marriage before the half rule applied. You know that I don't really mess with divorces, so I'm depending on you to help me out.”

  “You know that I will Colt, and this is the best way to go about it. You have to be careful how you approach this, and you have to show them that you are not going to just roll over and take it.”