Chapter Three
Unbelievable.
Leonidas did not like being blindsided. He was not used to it. Rarely ever was. But ever since his wife had asked for a divorce, it was just one shock after another, each time sending him reeling, and this morning was the same.
Why did she ask that he meet with his lawyer first before they talked?
The Kontides & Partners conference room was all clean lines and understated wealth.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked Manhattan’s Financial District, the morning sun casting long rectangles across the mahogany table.
Framed photos lined one wall—not the usual parade of celebrity clients and landmark cases, but candid shots of people from all walks of life, all of them smiling.
Bibles sat on the sideboard, page tabs of assorted colors marking well-worn passages.
Leonidas had been here before, but never like this.
Never as a man whose wife wanted to leave him.
“I am sorry about this, Leon.”
Adriano Kontides stood across the table, silver eyes uncharacteristically grave.
The attorney was dressed in his usual impeccable charcoal suit, dark hair swept back from a face that belonged on ancient coins.
At forty-five, he still moved with the coiled energy of a man half his age—but there was no energy now. Only reluctance.
He held out a folder.
Leonidas’s gaze narrowed. “Tell me what this is.”
“Something you will not like,” his friend said quietly.
Leonidas accepted the folder. Flipped it open. And drew his breath sharply as the words before him slowly arranged themselves into meaning.
Petition for Divorce.
And beneath that—
Transfer of Patent Rights. Full ownership. Irrevocable.
She wanted a divorce. In exchange, she was giving him her technology. The adaptive racing systems she had spent years developing. The work that could restore his career, save lives, change everything.
She was handing it to him like it meant nothing.
Why?
Why would she go this far?
The silence in the room grew taut, broken only by the distant hum of the city below.
And then the truth came to him, cold, sharp, unwelcome.
She still believed in her technology.
But she had lost faith in him.
Adriano was about to speak when Leonidas reached for his pen. The Mont Blanc his father had given him on his twenty-first birthday. The one he used to sign contracts worth hundreds of millions.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Signing it—”
Or at least that was the plan before his own pen was snatched out of his hand.
Leonidas stared at the empty space between his fingers, then at Adriano, who now held the pen like a hostage. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You are not doing any such thing.”
“We are not that kind of lawyer-client—”
“I am saying this as your friend.”
Pause.
Leonidas’s jaw tightened. “Give me the pen, Adriano.”
“No.”
“I am not asking.”
“Neither am I.” Adriano’s silver eyes held steady. “You are not signing this.”
“It is not your decision to make.”
“And yet here we are.”
Leonidas rose from his chair, and Adriano mirrored the movement. They faced each other across the mahogany table like opposing counsel...except no courtroom had ever seen a case quite like this.
“The pen,” Leonidas said flatly.
“Come and take it.”
Leonidas reached for it, Adriano pulled back, the Mont Blanc gleaming between them as they grappled, dignity forgotten, two billionaires in bespoke suits engaged in something that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a schoolyard scuffle.
Shayla was horribly late when she arrived at the office. She had always been punctual, but today was just the worst, and—huh?
Why were there so many paralegals crowding the hallway?
“This is ridiculous—”
“Then stop trying to destroy your own marriage—”
“I am respecting my wife’s wishes—”
“You are being an idiot—”
And what were they all staring at that had them so captivated it was as if they were hypnotized? It was like they were rehearsing a scene from Welcome to Derry—
Oh!
Shayla couldn’t believe her eyes. What were these two doing? Why were they playing tug of war over a Mont Blanc pen? Was this some kind of dare? A boy thing that girls could never understand? Or had their office simply run out of pens and common sense?
Oh, whatever.
Shayla rushed past everyone and quickly apologized to Lexy who was already waiting for her in her office. “I’m so sorry. I tried to get here as early as I could—”
“It’s fine. You warned me yesterday you had a meeting before this.”
Shayla noticed the way Lexy was restlessly clasping and unclasping her hands. “Is everything okay? Did you and Leonidas talk again before coming here?”
“We came here separately.”
“Oh.”
“I thought it would be better that way.”
Shayla’s heart ached at the strain underscoring the younger woman’s voice. “May I ask you something, Lexy?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you truly want this divorce?”
“I...yes.”
Shayla didn’t miss the way Lexy’s eyes avoided meeting her gaze as she answered. “I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I have a feeling there’s something more to this. Something you’re holding back, and I just—”
“I just need to do this,” Lexy said jerkily. “It’s just...fairer this way.”
****
The tug-of-war only ended when Adriano received a call, and Leonidas came to his senses as he found himself holding the Mont Blanc pen that he just spent the ten minutes of his life actually fighting to retain possession of like it was the title to his most expensive property.
His whole life, he had always been mature and sensible. But now, because of this...this marriage that had gone from convenient to complicated in a blink—he had ended up acting like a toddler who didn’t want to share his toy.
“Is that so?”
The tone that Adrian used had Leonidas’ lips tightening. He knew his friend well enough to understand what that measured tone meant. And so, as soon as the call ended, he did not waste time in asking—
“How bad is it?”
Adriano looked at him soberly. “It’s not what you think.”
“So not about the divorce then?”
“It is,” Adriano allowed, “but not in the way you imagined.” A pause followed before Adrian went on with faint reluctance, “Shayla and I do not speak of this often, but we welcomed an investor in our firm shortly after our marriage. A silent partner who owns a controlling share in the firm.”
Leonidas’ brows shot up at the revelation. Whoever this individual was, he must be someone Adriano significantly respected and trusted, to yield such control over his firm.
“We’ve had our best year ever since working with him. But it’s also because of him we’ve become highly selective with the cases we take on.”
“Does he think my case has the potential to attract the wrong attention?” Leonidas questioned.
“You need to keep in mind that your case and Lexy’s was supposed to be a simple referral. That’s it. But now that it’s come to this...”
While Leonidas had no trouble reading between the lines, he was rather surprised that a law firm would draw the line on divorce proceedings, which most legal counsels saw as the easiest way to make money.
“After the media coverage from the Cannizzaro situation—”
“Which did not actually result in a divorce,” Leonidas pointed out.
“I know that. But the press? The public? They do not care, and since then, we’ve been inundated with requests. Celebrities. Politicians. Anyone who wants their separation handled with discretion.”
“And your investor disapproves of this because?”
“He believes marriage is sacred.” A pause. “So do Shayla and I, and that’s why—”
“You want me to seek legal representation elsewhere,” Leonidas surmised flatly.
“We would like to ask for you and Lexy to consider mediation,” Adriano said at the same time, and his lips twitched when he saw his friend’s subsequent reaction to his words.
“A mediation?” As a Greek, mediation called forth thoughts of the Trojan horse, and the whole world knew what happened after that.
“Ne, my friend. A mediation. A chance to make things right and go all in—but without sacrificing your pride. You can both simply think of it as your legal counsel wanting the best for their client, which is to keep all the assets under one conjugal account...rather than go through the costly, not to mention unnecessary, mess of division of property.”
“And if either of us refuse?”
“Then I have no choice but to go with our investor’s directive, and that is to give you another referral for your case.”