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Oh, I thought wryly. Is that why I feel like a punch line?
Perhaps it was my numb, hurt state, but I felt a new resolve solidify within me. “No.”
She stared. “Come again?”
To hell with it. I took a sip of the drink and winced as memories from the last week washed in and out of my mind again like the tide. “I told you once and I’m telling you again: I am not giving you one more cent. Lauren,” I said sharply as she opened her mouth. “Even if I was inclined to change the settlement, which I’m not, you made the last few days hell.”
“I just saved you from an embarrassment.”
“You didn’t save me from anything I wouldn’t have eventually figured out myself,” I snapped. “And you cost me a few good days with the man—” I stopped, stunned at myself.
… With the man that I loved.
I shoved that thought away, hard. Instead, I took another sip, set down the glass, and said, “Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Meanwhile, you not only ruined the best vacation of my life, but I’ll probably have the resort coming after me for the cost of that sailboat since your reservation was under my name.”
She sniffed.
“I’m sure the media will be interested in that story: How a negligent resort allowed their guests to go out under a gale warning, and how my ex-husband and his boy toy saved me—”
“Tell them whatever you want,” I said harshly. “And add the sex tape on top. That’ll confuse a few people.”
Her jaw dropped but I stared at her hard.
“This isn’t over,” she said
“Yes, it is.”
And then I turned away from her. It was over, I knew. Finally.
She pouted and gave me the silent treatment for the rest of the flight, which I was more than satisfied with.
As soon as the plane landed and the pilot gave his okay, Lauren hopped up and flounced off the plane.
No doubt about it, she still intended to stir up trouble, but I wasn’t in a mental state to care.
Whatever else had happened between myself and Kendall, it gave me a new perspective on Lauren. I was certain now that I had never loved her the way a man ought to love a woman. For that, if nothing else, I could be grateful.
* * *
I returned home to my penthouse suite and spent the last few days of my vacation basically in self-imposed isolation. A very fancy term for hiding out.
Lauren called and left a few voicemails. I assumed they were either pleading or threats. Either way, I didn’t want to hear any of it. I forwarded them to Bob, my lawyer, and instructed him that there would be no change in the settlement offer.
For his part, Bob was on top of his game. He was already rated as one of the best divorce attorneys in the state, but with Lauren’s shenanigans in getting privileged information from his firm, it had become personal. Needless to say, all signs pointed to the settlement going in my favor. There was even a chance that Lauren could receive even less than I had offered.
Especially once the sex tape was released, and word of my bisexuality was leaked to some of the seedier online paparazzi magazines.
I was working on some spreadsheets when I heard a knock at my door. This was a little unusual, because as far as my friends were concerned, I was still living it up at the resort.
Cautiously, I looked through the peephole and inhaled a sharp breath when I saw who stood on the other side.
“Mom!” I exclaimed and quickly opened the door.
My mother, Betty Helman, was a slight woman who had only seemed to shrink in the last few years. However, her blue eyes were sharp and her short, white-gray hair was currently styled in youthful looking spikes. Her sense of fashion had become… interesting since Dad died.
“Deacon,” she said warmly and stepped in to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You’re looking tanned from your vacation.”
“How did you know I was here?”
