“Representing my ex-wife? What are you talking about? We’ve been divorced for years now. She has no business to handle with me.”
“So you are, Nigel Washington?” Vernon asked for confirmation.
“Of course I am. I’m sure you know that already. You are standing in front of my home. I assume you got my address from her.”
“Good, then this is for you.”
Passing the man who was now fuming a packet of legal documents, Vernon took in every wrinkle on the man’s face as he read over the paperwork. Stress lines filled Nigel’s face like they belonged. In his entire life he had never been at a loss for words. However, for a moment no mater how brief, he was just that, at a loss for words. A few minutes of silence passed before he felt he had enough energy to respond.
“This must be some type of mistake. This can’t be.”
“We can resolve this matter swiftly. I’ve already reserved a laboratory where the test can be done privately and discreetly.”
“No, you don’t understand. My ex-wife, Vera. She is barren. We’ve gotten her checked by specialists so many times. There is no way this could be.”
Vernon took pride in watching the man who had always been in control of everything in his sister’s life while they were married begin to unravel. After their divorce, which was swift, Nigel had left Vera with not a dime of his own money as far as he knew. He had pulled footage of the couple’s home security to prove her infidelity. There was video and still pictures of her both in bed with the man and the man running out of their bedroom nearly naked. He had strategically had it edited and ensured that no footage of the man going into the room had surfaced. Her side of the story irrelevant against actual footage of the brief moment her facial expression gave off the impression that she appeared to enjoy the moment of passion between her and the strange man.
At the time that they were going through the divorce Vera didn’t contest any of the footage. She had already changed plans in regards to how she was going to gain access to her husband’s money. Now that she was made aware of the way that he had set her up, she definitely had no remorse for the way she was about to make his life crumble to pieces.
“Again, a simple test to prove your paternity to the child will clear the matter up and allow us to move forward.”
“Move forward. What do you mean move forward? You stand in front of my home to tell me that my estranged ex-wife who was barren our entire marriage now has a child and I’m the father? How do I know it’s not the seed of the man she cheated on me with? I find it mighty funny that all of a sudden she was able to have a child. And it’s supposed to be mine? I don’t think so.”
“Sir, there are options. We can have the test done privately or we can make this a public matter and have the judge force you to take the test with the results being revealed in a courtroom with hundreds of onlookers. The decision is up to you.”
“Where is she? I need to talk to her first!”
“Nigel, is everything okay?” The woman sitting in the passenger seat of his car finally spoke up. The exchange he was involved in seemed to be escalating and she needed to know if there was something he wanted her to do before things got out of hand.
“You can roll your window up and mind your fucking business.” Nigel had no patience for the woman. Could she not see that he was having a private conversation? She followed his instructions and faced forward. Knowing something was wrong and acting on it were two different things. Nigel would handle whatever it was. She was embarrassed with the way he had spoken to her, but this wasn’t anything new. She was used to it.
“Here is my card. Feel free to give me a call if you would like to take up my offer. If not, we will see you on the court date listed on the subpoena.”
“You can’t do this to me. I will have the test done by my own specialist. You don’t get to tell me where to go and how to do this.”
Vernon laughed to himself. The man had no idea that he had lost the war already. This was just a small portion of their much larger plans.
“No, you have your options. My client will no longer be bullied by you or your scare tactics. Your money can’t get you out of this one. Have a good day.”
Vernon walked off leaving Nigel to look at his back enraged. Looking down at the paperwork, he studied the information further. The child was just over four years old. The timing would have taken her to carry the child and their current age would put the calendar to right around when he walked in on her for their seventh year wedding anniversary. His mind was trying hard to find a way to make this not a possibility, but he wasn’t winning.
Could it be? Could he have finally fathered a child with the woman he had setup so he could divorce? This wasn’t good at all. Not the news he was looking to come home to after a relaxing vacation.
He slammed the documents against his leg just as he watched Vernon speed off. He could just about scream. And worst off he had to deal with the woman who was still sitting his car looking like a sad puppy.
She had to go. He didn’t have time to deal with her childish antics. Dealing with a woman nearly half his age made it easy to manipulate mentally, but at the moment he didn’t even have the energy for that.
Pulling out his phone he ordered a car to take her home. “Get your bags. A car will arrive shortly to bring you home. I need to be alone.”
She was puzzled by the way he was acting but was also too afraid to question him. Instead she did as requested and watched as he locked the car door the minute she removed her bags from the trunk and left her on the curb like trash.
Nigel walked in the house without looking back at her. He was finished with her and already forgotten that he was supposed to care. There were bigger things on his mind.
Vera.
12
Four Years Prior
Vera sat in the living room of her new home pacing frantically. Sweat beads fell from her face. She was more nervous than she had been in her life. She honestly had no reason to be. Things had been going smoothly with plan b.
After finalizing her divorce from her husband and accepting the terms without any dispute, she had set into action swiftly. The state they lived in being commonwealth allowed for an immediate divorce if one could prove infidelity. He had delivered the paperwork to her so quickly it made her head turn.
The same day she returned to their home to get the rest of her belongings, she found a box on the steps, the locks changed and everything he felt she needed packed neatly in the box. She wasn’t mad. It only fueled her desire to move on. What surprised her was the divorce papers laying on top of the box. No need to mince words. He was done with her.
While he had changed his number, he had always been proud of his home and she knew he had no intentions of giving her anything more than his last name. Even that she would eventually change. That part did not bother Vera. She knew the type of man she had married. She knew as liberal as he was with his money, he could be stingy in the same instance once he lost interest in something. Just give him a reason and he would pull every privilege he had previously given away, bragging about how he was the reason for a person’s rise or fall.
However, he had met his match and didn’t even know it. It was Vera’s turn to flip the tables. And she was going to enjoy taking away from him one of the most important things that he adored in life, his money.
The phone vibrated in her hand causing her to answer swiftly. “Hello?”
“Hello, Vera?”
“Tonya, yes it’s me.”
“I just made it to the hospital. The baby is definitely on the way.”
“I’m leaving now.”
When Vera first got a text alerting her that her surrogate’s water had broken, she was excited and scared. This was really happening. In a few hours she would be a mother. Nigel would be a father. Everything was coming together and she couldn’t have possibly been more elated.
The last time she had spoken to Nigel was briefly at their divorce hearing. There really wasn�
��t much to say. He was playing the role of the hurt husband and she no longer cared to try to explain what really happened.
As Vera gathered her purse and keys, she placed a quick text to Vernon letting him know it was go time. It had taken little doing to find a woman who was willing to be paid to be artificially inseminated. The real kick for her was that using a surrogate for a child between the couple had always been Nigel’s idea. It was pure irony that she was the one to follow through.
Over the years there were many things Vera had taken from her husband without his knowledge. She didn’t ask for money in the divorce as she had already been hoarding money from him their entire marriage. He would give her twenty thousand for a new purse; she would get a bag for one hundred and bank the rest in her private account or safe deposit box. It wasn’t as though he would notice the difference as he seldom purchased her things himself. He would rather give her the money for it as he felt her taste was too persnickety.
She would ask for a new car and he would give her full reign to handle it. It was almost too easy to find a side lot dealership to take cash for the car she told her husband she wanted and inflate the numbers on the receipt for a little extra on the top.
Her husband had been the easiest con she dealt with in her life. When it was all over, she was very well off as far as money was concerned. Still, she felt as though she was entitled to much more especially as she learned where the source of his wealth had come from.
The biggest investment had come in the very beginning of their relationship. Even before they married. Vera was always adamant that her husband use condoms until they were married. While he thought nothing of it, she was very calculating. Collecting each sperm filled contraceptive at the end of a love making session discreetly, only for the next day it to be taken to a lab she had paid to preserve the specimen.
The story she had given them was impressive. Explaining that her husband was a very busy man and could not come in himself to bring the deposits but it was very important that they were preserved. She told them that he had been told his sperm count was low and they were being proactive to eventually build a family. A young Vera had come prepared face flushed with tears, voice hoarse but funds ready to pay whatever it took to get what she needed.
Over the years she kept in contact with the lab to ensure everything was still in place. They assured her she had collected more than enough when she was ready to start the process. Vera responded at the end of each call with many thanks and a donation to the facility for their assistance.
They had no idea that they had been a very important part of her long end game. This was her insurance card and now it was time for that card to be played.
With her brother’s help they put the plan in motion and now it was the day that she hoped for. A child that would be born with her ex-husband’s DNA. The tricky part was producing a healthy enough egg to also implant in the surrogate. After years of not being able to conceive she knew that this was going to be tough. She knew carrying would not be an option for her due to the condition of her womb. However, after many injections, some extreme prayer and a miracle, she was able to produce eggs that had a thirty percent of being usable.
When she got the call from her surrogate’s doctor that everything worked out, she was over the moon. The nine months of pregnancy went on without a hitch and now her child was on the way. It was in this moment that she felt her life would forever change. Even though her child would be a part of a larger scheme of things, emotionally she already felt connected.
Unlike what she and her brother had growing up, she was going to give this child the world. First and foremost, she had to get to the hospital. There was not one important moment of her child’s life that she would be willing to miss.
13
Present Day
“Tell me something, man. Tell me this cannot come back to bite me in the ass.” Nigel was pacing his attorney’s office. He called him as soon as he got his luggage settled in his home to let him know that he would be on his way shortly.
He sped through yellow lights not concerned with if they had turned red before his car made it through or not. Nigel was on a mission. Parking in a handicapped spot in front of the building, he rushed his way up to his friend’s office. Nigel and Levi had known each other for years. The had a very similar cut throat cadence about them, only Nigel still intimidated Levi at every chance he could.
Meeting back in college, the two stayed connected over the years. Nigel liked the fact that when it came to litigation, Levi was a pit bull in the courthouse. However, when he was dealing with Levi directly, Nigel still treated him as though he was slightly beneath him. In Nigel’s eyes it was all about net worth and the fact of the matter was Levi was on his payroll. Therefore, he answered to him and was beneath him.
Levi read over the document very carefully. The subpoena was very clear and very valid. “Sorry to tell you this, but you have a real paternity case on your hands. It doesn’t matter when the mother of the child decided to file for paternity. If she can prove you to be the father of this child, you are responsible.”
“You don’t understand. I went with Vera to numerous doctor’s appointments. She has had miscarriages throughout our marriage. She was never able to carry a child while we were married. How is this possible?”
“There are a number of ways. Technology has improved vastly over the years. Seems to me like you need to focus more on how you want to handle this request for DNA testing. If she is able to prove paternity, you will need to consider your next steps.”
Nigel gave Levi a stare that could knock the wind out of the sky. He was coming to him looking for solutions and was only being presented with probability of a problem already on the table.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. The lawyer I pay thousands of dollars a year to retain. Isn’t there something you can file to halt this?”
Levi raised an eyebrow in his direction. He couldn’t be serious. “Nigel, I am not a family lawyer. I handle corporate law. You come to me with business concerns. Why didn’t you reach out to your divorce attorney to see what they recommend?”
The question pissed him off more than he already was. “What the fuck do you mean? This is going to impact my business in a big way if this comes out to be true. And I thought you were my friend and I could come to you with issues concerning the law. What good are you if you can’t help me at all?”
Levi was used to Nigel’s harsh and condemning tone. He had been on the short end of his quick temper many times before. However, this was certainly the most irate he had ever seen his old friend in years.
“Have you talked to Vera?”
“Again, what kind of fucking question is that? She changed her number when I changed the locks on the house. I haven’t talked to her since our divorce was finalized. And I’ll tell you one fucking thing, she didn’t look pregnant then either.”
“Unfortunately, whether she looked pregnant or not, it doesn’t matter. When it comes to paternity, the relationship between the parents is not a deciding factor. What matters is what can be proven, the DNA.”
An emotion began to fill Nigel’s chest that he was not familiar with. Defeat. Nigel had always been on the winning side of things. From school to business to women. He never tolerated being defeated. He was not about to start a new trend now.
“You must have forgotten who it is that I am. I don’t answer to demands. I call the shots. You contact Vera’s legal counsel and advise that I will not meet her demands nor will I see her in court. She will bring the child to a doctor of my choosing. I don’t trust her. Who waits four years to tell someone they were married to that they have a child together? Something is not right about this entire situation and until I get to the bottom of it, she will follow my commands unless she wants to be tied up in litigation to her eyeballs.”
“Nigel, I am not a family lawyer.”
“And again, you seem to be under the
impression that I care about the details of how you get what I asked you to do done. Either you carry out my request or I will find new counsel for my business accounts.”
The two men locked eyes in a stare down match. Levi hated the way that Nigel’s demands came off as though he had no choice in the matter. He couldn’t stress to him enough that what he needed handled was not something that Levi had the authority to do. However, as far as Nigel was concerned, law was the law and he was a lawyer, wasn’t he?
For a moment Levi thought about how bad it would be if he were to lose Nigel as a client. From a business standpoint his firm handled all of the contracts for Nigel’s company. In fact, his business brought in thousands of billable hours on a monthly basis. Though Levi didn’t handle all of the caseload, he could imagine the overall impact it would have to the law firm losing such a major client.
It was his turn to feel defeated. His turn to comprehend that this man had walked into his office, talked down to him, changed the terms of his profession and there wasn’t a thing that Levi could do about it. He could lose the friend, but he simply could not afford to lose the business. Not yet anyway.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he spoke in an exasperated tone. Dropping his eyes to the floor to break away from the epic staring match he had just been involved in, Levi hoped that his answer would suffice. He knew that he would end up having to call in a lot of favors in to do what he was being asked to do.
“I look forward to hearing from you in regards to the next steps. Remember, my terms or no go.”
With those words Nigel leapt from his seat and made his way to the door. There was no more to be said. He would have his way. In fact, he was willing to bet money that this entire scenario was a farce to get access to his money. She had agreed to the divorce settlement. How dare she come back years later and try to pull some mess like this.
The Confident Woman Page 6