8
9
K nox contemplated whether to answer the door as he looked through his peephole. However, he knew that if he didn’t, she would just continue to knock and then cause a scene that he was sure his neighbors would witness.
Pretending not to be home was appealing, but he knew it wouldn’t work. Knox knew Mia well enough to know that she’d more than likely scoped the parking lot for his vehicle. Not to say he couldn’t have left with someone else, but he was sure she wouldn’t allow that thought to even cross her mind.
With a deep breath to help prepare him for whatever storm was about to sweep through his condo, Knox unlocked the front door and pulled it open.
“What are you doing here, Mia?”
It was a question that he didn’t need the answer to. He knew precisely why she was there. He hadn’t engaged with her over the phone anytime she called and wanted to talk about how unfair and selfish he was being. So, she’d come to speak with him in person. Knox had to give it to her. It had taken her longer to show up at his front door than he thought it would.
“Don’t play games with me, Knox,” Mia bit out, turning to look at him with her hands on her hips.
He wasn’t playing games with her. He just would not be the one to start the conversation. Knox felt they shouldn’t be communicating about anything but Yasmine outside of the presence of their lawyers. He planned on protecting himself against anything Mia could think to come up with and started recording when he realized it was her on the other side of the door.
His tablet sat on the bar, the screen dark as the audio recorder prepared to pick up whatever conversation they were about to have. Knox documented every call since he’d filed for divorce, and just because Mia made a house call, that didn’t mean he would not continue the trend.
“You seriously think that I’m going to take a measly two million dollars when I invested years of my life into what we had, into trying to make us work?”
Knox raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if her anger at the sum they’d both agreed on previously had caused her temporary amnesia. Yes, she’d put in years of her life, which she’d used to spend frivolously, throw fits he’d pacify by buying her whatever she wanted, took luxurious trips, and did what she wanted when she wanted.
She had also never tried to make them work. Mia spent most of the last two years of their marriage before he left the house, telling him what he needed to do better, that he needed to get over not being able to play anymore. She’d been unsympathetic to his injury and his decision to retire. So much so that his mother stayed with them to help for a bit.
Even with that, he hadn’t withdrawn into himself. Knox had been there the same way he was before his injury. It was just that now they were in each other’s space more without him being off at training camps, doing endorsements, or playing away games. Being around one another more forced him to confront the problem he’d been pacifying. It also made Mia see he was not the man who used to give her everything when she threw a fit, and she was no longer his number one concern. That mantle fell to their daughter the day Mia informed Knox she was pregnant.
“I don’t recall you trying to make anything work. I recall you telling me everything you felt I was doing wrong, that you seemed to think I needed to be better at. I recall you telling me to get out and not come back, that you wouldn’t be with a man that didn’t grovel at your feet,” he informed her. There was no way he would let her live in that delusion or spout that nonsense without him correcting her. Especially since he was recording the conversation.
“I never said you needed to grovel at my feet.”
Knox shrugged. “I’m paraphrasing.”
“Listen, I know that you’re worth much more than you’d like me to believe, and we both know I deserve more than this insult you’ve attempted to hand me.”
“Do you know that the average salary in our area is fifty-five thousand dollars a year?” Knox questioned. He knew Mia and knew that wouldn’t be enough to keep up with her spending habits. “You could live off eighty thousand a year and be fine for twenty-five years with what I’m offering.”
Mia sucked her teeth before flipping straightened black tresses over her shoulder. “I should not have to curb my spending because you’re too cheap to pay me what I deserve. I want fifteen million.”
You don’t deserve a damn thing , Knox thought. However, it was what they’d agreed to in the prenuptial agreement, and he was going to honor it. He was sure that if he wanted to fight it, Aiva could find some way around it, some way to justify him not paying Mia. However, he didn’t want to go through the extra hassle because, with the way she was now, he knew she’d be even worse if he did.
“I’m being more than generous.”
Mia scoffed. “If you expect me to settle for that, then you better be ready to pay spousal support until I remarry, and trust me, I’ll make sure you pay for the rest of your life. Add child support on top of that, and you’ll wish you would have paid me what I wanted.”
Knox kept his face neutral at the mention of child support because he would not be paying her that. He also wondered if she’d read all the documentation she received because this was the first time she had brought up anything about Yasmine. Knox concluded that she probably hadn’t, because if she did, she’d be giving him an earful about that as well.
“I’ve secured one of the best lawyers, and Ms. Neel and I are going to take you to the cleaners,” Mia informed him as she stomped past him to the front door.
Knox couldn’t even turn to see her leave. Her words echoed in the condo as the door slammed behind her. He stood there for another moment before stopping the recording. Then he locked the front door before going to the living room and grabbing his phone from the coffee table. He pulled up the contact he was looking for, and it rang three times before she answered.
“This is Aiva.”
A iva refrained from rolling her eyes. She’d been sitting in mediation for the past half hour, and they’d been discussing the same thing the entire time. The opposing counsel and client brought it up differently each time she shot it down. It gave merit to the fact that doing the same thing over again and expecting different results was insanity. Aiva wasn’t sure when they’d realized that her answer would not change.
She was sure her client’s soon-to-be ex-husband was continually bringing it up because he expected Sheila, her client, to fold and give in to his demands. It was fine that he thought that. You couldn’t blame a person for thinking, but it wouldn’t get him what he wanted because Aiva would not allow her client to agree to something that would not be beneficial to her and hurt her in the long run.
It wasn’t as if Sheila was being unreasonable or asking for the man’s weight in gold. She simply wanted him to continue paying for both of their children’s private education and monthly spousal support to supplement her income until their youngest graduated. Sheila would get about fourteen thousand dollars from him a year, which he could more than afford. Their children’s education would cost him quite a bit, but he was already paying that.
“Counselor, as I’ve told you and your client several times, the answer is no. Unfortunately, I cannot spin the same answer differently for you in the way that you keep asking the question.”
Aiva leaned back in the seat she occupied, taking in the stunned look on both men’s faces. She didn’t understand why they thought she wouldn’t call them out regarding the pressure they were putting behind the question. This also wasn’t their first mediation. The last one should have taught them that Aiva would not hold back when it came to advocating for her client every time they sat at that table.
From the corner of her eye, Aiva saw Sheila place her hand in front of her mouth to cover a smile. She’d done so several times throughout mediation, and Aiva was hoping that at some point, she would just outright laugh in Craig, her ex-husband’s face. As unprofessional as it was to wish such a thing.
Just from the information that was presented to her when Aiva took Sheila’s case, Craig put her through hell during their marriage. He micromanaged what she did and kept a tight grip on their finances. He would give her money for the household bills, groceries, and an allowance for things the kids needed. It caused Sheila to go back to work after staying home with her children for seven years until they started school.
Then, after coming home from work, Craig expected her to have the house spotless, take care of the kids’ needs, have dinner ready when he got home, and satisfy him at night. Aiva knew that women all over did that every day, and she wasn’t saying Sheila shouldn’t have. It was simply that Craig should have helped and micromanaged less.
On paper, the man was an asshole, but it was made abundantly clear the first time Aiva sat across the table from him. He’d thought he could intimidate her, to speak to her in any type of way, and she quickly put him in his place and let him know that was not how things went.
“What my client is asking for is more than fair, and before either of you opens your mouth to say she’s being unreasonable again, let me make something clear for you.” Aiva sat up, lacing her fingers together on top of the table. “You are the only ones being unreasonable right now. We all know Sheila is entitled to much more than she’s asking for. So, here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to send over a revised document. The two of you will look at it, agree to it, and sign it.”
Aiva closed the cover on her tablet, placing the manila folder on top of it along with her phone. She stood, signaling for Sheila to do the same before giving her full attention to the two men across from them.
“If you do not sign it, if we can’t get this worked out in mediation, we’ll see you in court. Where I will take you for everything you have. You will walk out of that courtroom with just the shirt on your back.” Aiva smiled at them before she and Sheila headed for the door. “Have a good day, gentleman,” she threw over her shoulder as they exited.
The two made it to the parking lot, stopping beside their vehicles which were parked next to one another.
“Do you think he’ll sign when you send it to him?” Sheila inquired as she unlocked her door.
“If he knows what’s good for him, he will,” Aiva responded, doing the same and leaning in to place her things in the passenger seat. “I’m going to change the document with your permission. I know you asked for one thousand two hundred a month in support, but we don’t want you barely scraping by just to keep him pacified. Asking for an even two thousand will give you some wiggle room, and it won’t hurt him at all. Though you deserve more.”
Aiva watched Sheila think about it for a moment before nodding. She knew that even with the slight increase, Craig would more than likely sign the papers because Aiva was serious about taking everything he had if he didn’t. Once he signed, Sheila could take care of her kids, and she didn’t have to worry about paying Aiva. She’d made it a stipulation in the original documentation that Craig paid her fee.
After telling Sheila she would call her when she got a response, the two women got into their cars. Aiva had just pulled out of the parking lot when her phone rang. She glanced at the screen in her car and saw that it was forwarded from the office phone.
“This is Aiva.”
“Hey, Aiva, it’s Knox.”
She knew. She always knew it was him when she heard that deep baritone. It was like a warm caress.
“Hi, Knox. How are you?”
“I’m confused.”
Aiva furrowed her brow, but she figured he had a question about his divorce case. “Okay, maybe I can help. What are you confused about?”
“Mia dropped by today to tell me I was being selfish, but before she left, she said that she and her lawyer would take me to the cleaners.”
Aiva would not let that happen. There wasn’t a judge on earth that would give Mia anything more than what Knox was willing to give with all the evidence he had against her regarding her parenting and the way she harassed him. She thought she’d been doing a good job of showing him that, but maybe he needed some reassurance. Before she could respond, he continued.
“Her lawyer, Ms. Neel.”
Aiva snorted. She hadn’t meant to. It just sort of slipped out. She wasn’t sure what universe Mia was living in where a definitive no equated to a let me think about it and get back to you. However, she understood his confusion because it would mean that either she or her sister had taken Mia on as a client.
“I can assure you that if she has a lawyer named Ms. Neel, they don’t work at my firm. She inquired with Meila, but we have a rule that we don’t sit on opposing sides of the table. So, she didn’t take her case.”
Aiva felt it was fine to tell him that much since Mia wasn’t a client, and inquiring was not protected under privilege.
“Thank you for clarifying. It just caught me off guard.”
“Don’t worry about it. I take it that means that she’s yet to find a lawyer. Let’s use this time to brainstorm some counterattacks and find some places where you may lean a bit. I’m headed back to the office now. When I get there, I’ll check my calendar and we can get something scheduled.”
“Okay, I’ll await your call,” Knox responded.
The two said their goodbyes, and Aiva stopped and picked up something for lunch. She knew she had a few appointments opened for Friday but wasn’t sure what time. She’d check and get him in as soon as possible.