Chapter 13
Cora and I decide to drive to a playground that is a little more out of the way to avoid the other mothers eavesdropping on us. We find a bench with a good view of the play structure, and we release the boys to do their thing.
I can’t help but admire what fantastic shape Cora is in. I have maintained myself as well as I can, but she just looks so fit, like she takes daily trips to the gym. Even though I know I shouldn’t, I find myself scrutinizing her breasts, trying to figure out if the rumors are true.
Cora must notice me looking, because she says to me, “So what are they saying? That I had a boob job?”
My face burns. “Um…”
She throws her head back and laughs. “It’s okay. I take it as a compliment. By the way, the answer is no.”
Okay, now I’m jealous.
“So.” She sets her steely gaze on me. “I have been hearing from Zack that you and your husband are no longer cohabitating. And I’m assuming those are divorce papers you got served with.”
I drop my eyes. “We’re having some issues. This vixen got her claws in my husband, and now he’s lost his mind.”
“Well, there isn’t much you can do about him ripping apart your family.” She props her arm up against the back of the bench. “But you can make him sorry that he ever laid eyes on her. I hear your husband is loaded. Do you have a prenup?”
“Yes.”
“A complication,” she says thoughtfully, “but definitely not insurmountable. I had one too, but my lawyer got it thrown out.”
I think back to what everyone says about Cora. That her lawyer shredded her prenup. That she made her ex-husband cry. If I’m going to get advice about divorce, there’s no one better to get it from. But I’m still not sure that I want advice about getting a divorce.
“I still want to try to work it out with Jeremy,” I tell her.
She arches an eyebrow. “Seriously? After everything he’s done to you?”
“He was a good husband and a really good father.” I reach for the crystal around my neck. Today I’m wearing a snowflake obsidian crystal, which helps to forge emotional strength. “I think he’s going through a midlife crisis.”
“Oh, boo-hoo. Naomi, he ditched you for a younger woman, plain and simple. He’s not a child—he knows what he’s doing.”
I can’t say she’s wrong, but I still don’t want to give up on my marriage. “My mother had three husbands. It was really hard on me. I never wanted that for Teddy.”
I look over at my son, who is chasing his friend around the playground.
They pause only briefly when Teddy finds an interesting rock on the ground and slips it into his pocket.
I love watching the unadulterated joy on his face when he’s playing.
There’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing him happy.
“Teddy will be happy if you’re happy,” Cora says. “And you’re not going to be happy if you get shafted in the divorce. You need a good lawyer, Naomi.”
“I guess so…”
“Who’s your lawyer now?”
“I don’t…” I cross one leg over the other. “I don’t have a lawyer. At present.”
“Naomi!” She smacks me in the arm hard enough that it sort of hurts. “You need a lawyer! No—you need a shark. You need somebody who can destroy that stupid prenup you signed.”
I squeeze my hands together. “Do you have any recommendations?”
“Well, the best divorce lawyer on the island, of course, is Lenny Hardwick.”
My heart stinks. “That’s my husband’s lawyer.”
“Ouch.” She winces. “Your husband is a smart guy, isn’t he?”
“He definitely is.”
“Okay then.” She reaches into her purse for her phone and taps on the screen. “I’m going to give you the number for my lawyer, Stefanie Gorman. She’s amazing. I’ll let her know I’m sending you her way.”
Cora might have a great lawyer, but I don’t want to call her. Once I have a lawyer, things are going to start moving quickly. A lawyer isn’t going to want me to reconcile with my husband. She’s going to want me to get a divorce, because that’s her area of expertise.
Cora notices my hesitation. She puts down her phone and places a bony hand on my shoulder. “Naomi, I know you’re hoping to work things out with Jeremy. I know you still love him. But he’s already made up his mind.”
“Well…”
“Naomi, he has already made up his mind.”
Except she didn’t see the look in Veronica’s eyes the other night. She doesn’t understand the way my husband—a good man—is being manipulated.
“What you need to do,” she says, “is defend yourself. You need to make sure that you don’t leave this marriage penniless. And most importantly, that you get as much time as possible with your son. You don’t want that asshole trying to get custody and just sticking you with visitation rights.”
I shake my head vehemently. “Jeremy would never do that. He is always at work! It wouldn’t make sense for him to want custody.”
“Yes, well.” Cora lifts a shoulder. “You’d be surprised what gets thrown on the table when things start to get ugly.”
She might be right about needing a lawyer, but she’s wrong about the custody thing. Jeremy would never take Teddy away from me.
Cora finds a scrap of paper in her purse and scribbles down the number from her phone. She holds out the paper for me, and when I don’t take it, she presses it into my hand.
“Call Stefanie,” she pleads with me. “This is going to happen whether you like it or not, and you need a good lawyer.”
“Okay.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
“Good.” She nods, satisfied. “And one day next week, when you don’t have Teddy and I don’t have Zack, the two of us are going to go out for drinks.” She winks at me. “There’s only so much fun you can have at a school playground, right?”
I return her smile, but I can’t even contemplate the idea of having fun right now. I’m too busy fantasizing about what I would do to Veronica if I got her alone.
If I had fifteen minutes with her, I feel confident I’d figure out the truth.